PRACTICAL BOOK || 
| OF DECORATIVE 
WALL-TREATMENTS |] 


BY 


NANCY MECLELLAND 




















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LIPPINCOTT’S PRACTICAL BOOKS FOR 
THE ENRICHMENT OF HOME LIFE 





THE PRACTICAL BOOK OF DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS. 
By Nancy McCur£.ianp. 


THE PRACTICAL BOOK OF LEARNING DECORATION AND FUR- 
NITURE. By Epwarp Stratrron Houioway. 


THE PRACTICAL BOOK OF CHINAWARE. By Haroutp DonaLpson 
EBERLEIN and RoGER WEARNE RAMSDELL. 


THE PRACTICAL BOOK OF TAPESTRIES. By Grorcre LELanp 
Hunter. 


THE PRACTICAL BOOK OF OUTDOOR FLOWERS. By Ricuarpson 
Waricut, Editor of House and Garden. 


THE PRACTICAL BOOK OF FURNISHING THE SMALL HOUSE 
AND APARTMENT. By Epwarp Stratton Hotioway. 


THE PRACTICAL BOOK OF INTERIOR DECORATION. By Haroitp 
DoNALDSON EBERLEIN, ABBOT McCLurEand EDWARD STRATTON HOLLoway. 


THE PRACTICAL BOOK OF PERIOD FURNITURE. By Harotp 
DonaLpson EBERLEIN and ABBoTt McCiure. Revised and Enlarged. 


THE PRACTICAL BOOK OF ORIENTAL RUGS. By G. Grirrin 
LEwis. 


THE PRACTICAL BOOK OF AMERICAN ANTIQUES. By Harotp 
DoNnALDSON EBERLEIN and ABBot McC.LurRE. 


THE PRACTICAL BOOK OF ARCHITECTURE. By C. Marttacx 
PRICE. 


THE PRACTICAL BOOK OF GARDEN ARCHITECTURE. By Purse 
Westcott HuMPHREYS. 


THE PRACTICAL BOOK OF ITALIAN, SPANISH AND PORTU- 
GUESE FURNITURE. By Harotp Donatpson EBERLEIN and ROGER 
WEARNE RAMSDELL. 


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vue 53 


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PLATE I. A PLASTER WALL TREATED WITH ORANGE SHELLAC AND PANELLED WITH 
LACQUER RED MOULDINGS 


Old Chinese wall-paper is set in red frames to complete the scheme 


Poe LL CAL. BO} K 
OF DECORATIVE 
WALL-TREATMENTS 


By 


NANCY McCLELLAND 


AUTHOR OF “‘ HISTORIC WALL-PAPERS”” 


WITH § ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR AND 
206 IN DOUBLETONE 


PHILADELPHIA AND LONDON 
J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY 
1926 ° 











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COPYRIGHT, 1926, BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMP. 


PRINTED BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT CO 
AT THE WASHINGTON SQUARE ] 
PHILADELPHIA, U.S. A. _ 


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2. 


FOREWORD 
a pent WALL-TREATMENTS aims to 


be a practical assemblage of facts and sug- 

gestions. So far as possible, the various 
examples have been selected from villas, manors, and 
private houses, both here and abroad, in the hope that 
they will be simple and adaptable for those who desire 
to reproduce such mural decorations in their own 
homes. Even among the more elaborate schemes will 
be found certain elements capable of being trans- 
planted with good effect to our own dwellings by those 
who are alive to the beauty of the decorated wall. 

It is also hoped that the decorator, the architect, 
and the student of decoration will find here a body of 
material, period and modern, conveniently arranged, 
to which reference may quickly be made at any time for 
inspiration or information regarding details. 

I am indebted for many courtesies and helpful sug- 
gestions from architects, decorators, and painters, to 
whom this book owes much. The cooperation of 
Richard H. Dana, William Lawrence Bottomley, and 
Robert C. Carrére has been especially valuable. 

My warmest appreciations are due to Miss Ruth 
Loomis, Miss Elizabeth Scarborough, Mr. Arthur 
Byne, M. Jean Seligmann, Mr. Harold D. Eberlein, 
Mr. H. D. Lown, Conte and Contessa di Venezze, and 
Mr. William Helburn, for their cordial assistance. 

The editors of House and Garden, House Beauttful, 

5 







6 FOREWORD ie 


fe 
4 
Rh: 


ave 


Country Life, and the American Magazine of Art h 
been generous in the loan of illustrations and in per- 
mission to make 
over my name. 
this politeness. 


New York Crry > 
AprRIL, 1926 


Se 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER PAGE 
BO SU OTION 2 Yves ee gh edad oh el sy eis aD 
Il. THe Historic DrvELOPMENT oF DECORATED 

Rome Rea nr cree Ls si Cue wey nt MEG, Selsey. 

Pet ices AS WALL DECORATIONS . . 3. ... . bl 
IV. FrREescorep AND PainteD Watts... ... . 65 
VY. Stucco anp PuastER ORNAMENTATION... . 101 

VI. Watts with APPLIED HANGINGS ..... . 125 
BeteeryVOOD-PANELLING . « «© « so 0 «© -« « » 165 


VIII. Tue Orenincs or A Room anp THEIR COMPLETION 193 
IX. Rovau anp Smootu PuasterR Watts... . . 215 
X. Movaste Watt DecoraTIONS . ..... . 237 

POPECRTONGHA PIV (60g) eo) ee: 8b 8 na Fs eee de Mise cee UO 


INDEX e e e e e e e e e e e 2 e e e 269 





ILLUSTRATIONS 
COLOUR PLATES 


PAGE 


Lacquer Red Mouldings on an Orange-shellac Plaster Wall 
Frontispiece 


Walls Veneered with Marble in the Palace of Versailles . 26 
Tiled Bathroom of Marie Antoinette in the Chateau of Rambouillet 50 
Stucco Dining-room in the Villa Lazzara-Pisani, at Stra . 100 
The Painted Canvas Room in Owlpen Manor . . . 124 
The Blue Dining-room. From a painting by W. B. E. Ranken . 164 
Niche and Book-cases in the Musée des Arts Decoratifs. . 192 
Half-timbered Walls in a Normandy Room . : . 214 
DOUBLETONES 
The Great Stairway, Casa de Pilatos, Seville, Spain . . 30 
Salon, First Floor, Palazzo Davanzati, Florence . 30 
Deep Painted Frieze and Painted Ceiling i in the Casa Petrarca 30 
Salon, Villa Madama, Rome. wool 
Dining-room in Apartment of Thomas Kennion, Florence 31 
Wood-panelling of the Epoch of Henri II . : 31 
Old Flemish Leather Used as Covering for Walls . ee 32 
Half-timbered Wall in the Living-room of a Tudor House . 33 
Mantel-piece in a Pine Room by William Kent . 33 
Early Georgian Room with Pine Panelling and Cupboards . 34 
Library in the Casa del Greco, Toledo. . ; 34 
Grand Salon in Poggia a Caiano . 35 
Grand Salon in the Villa Fava. . 35 
Louis XIII Wood-panelling of a Salon in the Hotel Sully, Paris 35 
The Dining-room, Chateau of aes with Louis pate 
Paneling (oq. . : - 35 
Oak Room from Hamilton Palace, “Scotland . : 36 
Regence Panelling in the Chateau of Rambouillet . 36 
Louis XV Wood-panelling 37 
Early American Panelling from the Colonel William Raymond 
Lee House, Marblehead, Massachusetts : 37 
An Early American F rescO-painting in the House of Walter P. 
Magee, Lyme, Connecticut . j 42 
A Fine Louis XVI Boiserie with Over-mantel Painting 43 
Pavillon de Musique in the Gardens of the Trianon at Versailles 44 
Adam Stucco Decoration on Over-mantel Panel and Cabinets 45 
Room Attributed to the Brothers Adam in a House at Carshal- 
ton, Surrey . Pao Pe ee Pale Sn 45 
Old Wall-paper, ‘ “The Monuments of Paris,” in the Hallway 
of the House of Mrs. Edward S. Moore, Roslyn, Long Island 46 
The Fireplace End of the Dining-room in the House of Mrs. 
Elon H. Hooker, Greenwich, Connecticut . .... 52 


9 


10 


PLATE 
301. 


302. 
303. 
304. 


305. 
306. 


307. 
308, 


309. 
310. 
$11. 
312. 
400. 
401. 


402. 
403. 


404, 
405. 


406. 
407. 
408. 
409. 


410. 
411. 
412. 
413. 
414, 
415. 
416. 
417. 
418. 
419. 


420. 
421. 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


PAGE 


Old Persian Tiles Used on the Stair-walls of the Hallway in 
the New York House of the late Stanford White ... . 

Window in the Casa de Pilatos in Seville, Spain out 

Doorway in the Casa de Pilatos, Seville P 

Living-room in the House of Glenn Stewart on the Eastern Shore 
of Maryland : 

Dutch Tile Room from Friesland, in the Art Institute of Chicago 

Panel of Old Talavera Tiles in the House of Henry Chapman 
Mercer, Doylestown, Pennsylvania .. ernnes 

The Tea-house of Mrs. E. T. Stotesbury at Palm Beach f 

Patio in the House of the Late Mrs. Jack Gardner of Boston, now 
the Isabella Gardner Museum . 

Tiled Stove and Tiled Table in Old Kitchen in Son Sarria, “Mallorca 

Kitchen in Son Sarria, Mallorca. Range with Tile Top . ‘ 

Bathroom in the House of Glenn Stewart . ; 

Mantel in the Residence of Charles Henry Wilson at Pelham . 

A Quattrocento Frescoed Room in the Palazzo Davanzati, F lorence 

Painted Wall in the Thirteenth Seep! Castello di Poppi in the 
Casentino . 

Wall Frescoes by "Benozzo Gozzoli in the Chapel. of the Palazzo 
Riccardi, Florence. 

Fresco by Botticelli Formerly i ina , Country House b between Careggi 
and Fiesole and Now in the Louvre. ; : 

Wall-painting by Veronese in a Villa at Maser. . 

Pa Architectural Decoration in the Villa la Massa, Bagni a a 

poll. . e ee Vee Swe) Wer oe ar ° 

Casa OP Pilatos, Seville. 

Dining-room in the Palace of Compiégne . ; 

Painted Decoration in the Villa Pietra in the ‘Style ‘of Berain 

Salon in the Imprimerie Nationale with Singerie Decorations by 
{. By Huet. AB ey 

Circular Hall in the Pavillon de Musique | at Montreuil « : 

The Dining-room at Malmaison. . 5 «Gears 

Louis XVI Bozserte, with Painted Arabesques oa UE es 

Reon in Son Vida, "Mallorca. . «9 Ea ea 

anish Gothic Loggia ‘ 

tek American Frescoed Wall in the House of Walter P. Magee, 
pene Connecticut . 

Stencilled Wall Decoration in the House of William Hickox, Wash- 
ington, Connecticut . 

Painted Decoration in the “Red House,” Owned by Mrs. E. P. 
Grosvenor, Washington, Connecticut . 

Painted Dressing-room i in the Residence of Mrs. Charles Mitchell, 
Tuxedo 

Dressing-room, ‘Painted on Silver Paper, in the Residence of Carl 
Tucker, Mt. Kisco . 

Painted Boudoir in the Residence of Mrs. E. S. Bayer, New York 

Painted Chinoiserie Room in the Former W. K. Vanderbilt House, 
Jericho, Long Island's <6 4 0 ts ve) Se hue he ee 


53 
56 
56 


57 
58 


ILLUSTRATIONS 11 
PAGE 
The Bathroom of the Duchesse d’Albe, Paris, by Rateau 86 
Early Italian Fresco in the Villa of Livia in Rome . 87 
Frescoed Breakfast-room in the House of J. F. Carlisle, Islip, 
Long Island . 88 
Painted Stair-hall in the House of Mrs. William K. Vanderbilt, 
Sutton Place, New York . . 89 
Scenes from “The Tempest” in the Hallway of E. O. Holter, 
Mt. Kisco, New York. . 90 
Painted Dining-room with Farm Animals, in the House of Mrs. 
Monroe Robinson, Long Island. . 90 
Painted Dining-room Wall in the Apartment of Richard H. 
Dana, Jr., Architect . . : 91 
Ballroom in the House of Sir Philip ‘Sassoon, London . 91 
Painted ae in the House of Mrs. Alfred S. Rossin, 
New Yor 92 
Library in a Villa Razzolini, F lorence, now Owned by TH. 
Spelman. . 93 
Model for Sporting Library, by Clara Fargo ‘Thomas. 94 
Drawing-room in the pe ee of Mrs. William T. Carrington, 
New York ; 95 
Painted Drawing-room - in the House of Preston Davey, Tuxedo 95 
Painted Decoration by Robert E. Locher, for the Living-room 
of Robert Handley, New Smyrna, Florida . . 96 
Office of Mr. James Brown, New York. The Decoration of 
Maps by Mr. Grey . ‘ 97 
Map of Long lana Painted by Barry Faulkner. . 97 
Painted Ceiling in the Dining-room of R. M. Catts, New York 98 
The Beautiful Sixteenth Century Stucco Decorations in the 
Villa Madama, Rome . bate . . 104 
A Vaulted Room in the Villa Pietra, Florence . 105 
A Room in the Villa Pietra, Florence . 105 
Doorway of a Salon in the Ridotto Venier, Venice . 106 
Louis XVI Stucco Decorations Combined with Landscape 
Paintings in the Poggio Imperiale, F lorence : 106 
Italian Empire Stucco Decoration in the Vestibule of Maria 
Luisa, Palazzo Pitti, Florence : 107 
The Magnificent Hunting Frieze in the Presence-chamber of 
Hardwicke Hall 107 
Rococo Stucco Wall Decoration in the Ladies’ Room of Eltham 
Lodge, Kent ; 108 
Stucco Decoration in the Dining-room of Harington House, 
Bourton-on-the-Water . tee 1.2 08 
Small Drawing-room with Adam Stucco Decorations. . . 109 
The Anteroom of Lansdowne House, London, with Niches, 
Stucco Statues, and Paintings set into the Wall . . 110 
Drawing-room in the Style of Adam in the House of N. A. 
Brady, Manhasset, Long Island . , All 
Stucco Decoration and Panelling made for F rancois “I at 
OUAED CA e' 0 es. eucsl ve, onal 6c pata s Ants De yee aan Lhe 


12 


PLATE 
513. 


514. 
515. 
516. 
517. 
518. 
519. 
520, 
521. 
600. 
601. 
602. 
603. 
604, 
605. 
606. 
607. 
608. 
609. 
610. 
611. 
612. 
613. 
614, 
615. 
616. 
617. 


618. 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


PAGE 
Salon with Louis XVI Stucco Decoration, in the Hotel Gouthiére, 
Rue Pierre Boulet, Paris. 112 
Salon with Stucco Medallions Set High» in the Walls, Hotel 
Gouthiére, Paris. 113 
The Small Round Louis XVI Boiserie Recently Installed in the 
Musée Carnavalet in Paris . 113 
Hallway in the Palm Beach House of Mrs. John Magee, with 
Stucco Decoration. 114 
Spanish Cut Plaster Used ‘as a Frieze below the Wooden Frieze- 
board of the Ceiling . . 114 
Old Spanish Cut Plaster Work (Yeseria) i in Moorish Designs, as a 
Frame around a Doorway . 115 
Old Spanish Yeseria as Decorative Wall- panels i in Combination 
with Tiles . . 115 
Renaissance Seraffito Work in the Courtyard of the Palazzo 
Spinelli, Florence . . 115 
Gesso Wall Decoration by Frances Burr for Her Own Dining-room 
in Her New York House. . Rr 
Ecclesiastical Gothic Tapestry Hung Flat onthe Wall . . . . 126 
Renaissance Tapestries . . 127 


Eighteenth Century French Tapestries Framed as Panels in the Wall 127 
Black and Gold Leather Room in the Plantin Moretus Museum, 


Antwerp . 128 
Old Venetian Leather in n Designs of Vases and Twisted Columns 
Set in Panels on Walls and Used for Screen . . 129 
The Famous Peacock Room by Whistler, now in the Freer Art 
Gallery in Washington . 134 
Salon in the Villa Pietra, Florence, with Vaulted ‘Ceiling, and Walls 
Covered with Old Crimson Damask . 135 
Doorway in Son Vida, Mallorca, Looking through the Principal 
Drawing-rooms. . 138 
Walls Panelled with Printed Linen in the House of Egerton L. 
Winthrop, Syosset, Long Island . . . : . 139 


Bedroom Hung with Toile de Jouy in Chinoiserie Design oe ot hd 
Painted Silk Wall-panels Alternating with Panels of Stucco . . 142 
Chinese Paper in the House of Henry D. Sleeper, Gloucester, 


Massachusetts . . 143 
A Simple Room with Decorative Borders Used at the Door- and 
Window-trims . . 148 


Dining-room in the House of Solon C, Kelley, Darien, Connecticut 148 
Floral Borders Used to Frame the Paper Panels in a Bedroom 149 
Dressing-room in the House of Mrs, Edward S, Moore, Roslyn, 
Long Island. 149 
Old Queen Anne Room Painted "Blue-green with Wall-paper 
Panels Set into the Woodwork. . 150 
Scenic Paper in the Hallway of the Residence of Mrs, Edward 
Ss. Moore, Roslyn, Long Tslandwais oe 151 
The “Three Musketeers” Paper in the Dining-room of Mrs, 
George B. Hedges, Westbury, Long Island .... . . 154 


ILLUSTRATIONS 13 


PAGE 


The “Palais Royal” Paper Used in a Garden Room, . . . 155 
A Panel of the Scenic Paper Antenor, Used as a Tapestry 158 
The Cupid and Psyche Paper Used as Panels in a Wood Room 159 
Old Painted Paper Set in Panels in the Wall . : 159 
English Pine Room in the House of Bertram G, Work, “Oyster Bay 170 
Fireplace Wall Sheathed with Pine Boarding, in the House of 


S. C. Kelley, Darien, Connecticut . . 170 
Stuart Panelling with ‘Carved Frieze and Cornice, in the House 

of J. E. Berwind, Bridgehampton, Long Island 171 
Gothic Oak-panelled Room from Boughton Malherbe Manor 

House, Kent... 171 
Pine Living-room in the House of Mrs. Edward §. Moore, 

Roslyn, Long Island _. 172 
Early American Panelled Room from the Coggeswell House, 

Essex, Massachusetts. 172 


Pine Living-room in Eighteenth Century English Style, in the 
Apartment of Mrs, Cornelius N. Bliss, New York. . . . 172 
An English Oak-panelled Room which is a Dignified ‘Interpre- 
tation of the best Work of Christopher Wren . 172 
Panelling in the Style of William Kent, with Book Cupboards 
and Carved Over-mantel . 173 
Panelled Room in the House of J. F, Bermingham, “East Norwich, 
New York . . 173 
Drawing-room in the Town House of William Lawrence Bottomley 173 
French Gothic Panelled Room from a Knights Hel Monas- 
tery near Bordeaux . : at $76 
Louis XV Boiseric in the Salon of 914 Fifth Avenue. . 174 
Louis XV Botserie in the Salle de Porcelaines, Chateau of Versailles 174 
Simple Louis XV Bozserie Painted Blue-green, with Mouldings 


Outlined in Ochre , 174 
Adaptation of Simple Louis XVI Panelling i in the Office of Leigh 

French, Jr., Architect. . . 174 
Carved and Gilt Panelling i in the Boudoir ‘of Marie Antoinette in 

the Petit Trianon, Versailles . . waite ye gene eM 
The Most Useful Mouldings in Wood-panelling . oy nee! eae cl 
Ornamental Mouldings. . +o Ses rete ROL 
Architectural Details, Francois I. to Henri IT Pe we aioe tet 
Architectural Details, Henri IV to Louis XIII. . . ... . 183 
Louis XIV Mouldings and Carved Ornaments . . 186 
Mouldings and Carved Ornaments of the Period of LouisXV. . 186 
Louis XVI Architectural Details. 187 
An Adam Carved Wood Doorway Completed with a Plain Wood 

Panel Above the Door-head 194 
A Louis XVI Trumeau with Carved Wood Panel Above the Mirror 

Completes the Fireplace Opening . : . 194 
Wood-panelling in Royall House, Medford, Massachusetts , . . 195 
The Philadelphia Room in the Metropolitan Museum. 195 


Doorway and Fine Panelled English Door in the Residence of ‘the 
fetter DAVISON Ce dete ie hs ie : ott eb OD 


14 


PLATE 


805. 
806. 


807. 
808. 
809. 
810. 
811. 
812. 
813. 
814. 
815. 
816. 
817. 


818. 
900. 


901. 


902. 
903. 
904. 
905. 
906. 
907. 
908. 
909. 
910. 


911. 
912, 


913. 


914. 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


PAGE 
Louis XVI Drawing-room with Ivory Paint and Gilt Carvings . 196 
Door-frame and Doors in the House of Mrs. Ramage Golsan, 


Richmond, Virginia . 197 
Regence Door-frames in the Private Apartments ‘of the Palace 

of Versailles . . 197 
Pine Doorway in the Residence of vi F. Bermingham, East 

Norwich, New York . . ee 4 


Mantel and Over-mantel in the Residence of the late H. P. Davison 200 
Niche in the William Kent Room in the Art Institute of Chicago 201 
An Example of the Finest Period of Early Georgian Work, with 
Good Cupboards and Cornice . . so 
Marbleized Niche in the Hallway of Mrs. William T. Carrington . 210 
Niche on Staircase in the Valentine Museum, Richmond, Virginia 210 
Spanish Niche in an Old Kitchen at Son Sarria, Mallorca... 211 
Recessed Book-cases with Shaped Tops in the House of Henry 


Tudor, Cambridge, Massachusetts . . 211 
Recessed Book-cases beside the F ireplace i in the House of Leigh 
French, Jr., Architect . 211 


The Georgian Library in the House of Miss Anne Morgan, 
Sutton Place, New York oi pias . 211 


Library in the "House of Henry F. Bigelow Ro 211 
The Old Tithe Barn in the Grounds of Borlases, Twyford, Con- 
verted into a Music and Billiard Room . 216 


Fireplace-wall, Showing Beams and Posts of an old Tudor House 
Removed from Ashford, Kent, and now Re-erected on’ the 


Outskirts of Cleveland . 6 SES 
Hand-trowelled Plaster Wall in the House of H. ie Cammann, 
Sutton Place . Re pe | 


Spunge Plaster Wall in the House of Benjamin. Wood . . . Q18 
Spanish Gothic Dining-room of J. P. Warburg. . tye are 
Stair-hall in the House of Miss FE. K. Hinehe Castine, Maine 220 
Painted Door by Victor White, Set into a Rough Plaster Room 


in the Apartment of Mrs, Walser . . . 220 
Finely Carved Wood Doors in the F rederick Sterner House, 
Set into a Plaster Wall . 221 


Smooth Plaster Wall with Ornamented Cornice, Door-frame, 
and a Simple Chair-rail, in the Residence of Mrs, Edward 


S. Moore, Roslyn, Long Island eies . See 
Plaster Walls Panelled with Important Mouldings : a | 
Living-room Panelled with Applied Aa Recessed Book- 

cases |. - . 224 


Living-room Panelled with Bold Mouldings ona Plaster Wall . . 224 
A Plaster Wall Grained to Imitate Pine, in the Residence of Mrs. 
Ernest Iselin. . 225 
The Effect of Jacobean Panelling Obtained with Wooden Stiles and 
Rails on a Plaster Wall. Wood and Plaster Both Grained to 
Imitate Oak . 225 
A Plaster Hallway with Marbleized Walls, Cornice, Baseboard, 
and Door-trims) is) 5) isu esse teehee ee 


PLATE 


915. 
1000, 


1001. 
1002. 
1003. 


1004. 
1005. 


1006. 
1007, 


1008, 


1009. 
1010, 


1011. 
1012. 
1013. 


1014, 
1015. 


1016. 
1017, 
1018. 


1019. 
1020, 


1021. 
1022, 


1023, 
1024. 


ILLUSTRATIONS 15 


PAGE 
Marbleized Pilasters on a Plaster Wall . 231 
Over-mantel Painting by Allyn Cox in the Living-room of Richard 
Dana, Jr., Architect . . . 238 
A Dutch Flower Painting Used to Fill’ ihe Over-mantel ‘Space i in 
the Dining-room of Mrs, Carl Schmidlappe . . 239 
The Spacing of the Architectural Painting over the Commode and 
between the Lights is Particularly Successful 239 
Tapestries and the Painting over the Mantel Give Character 
to the Walls. Ceiling Painted by Robert S. Chase . . . 240 
Ship Panels Applied to form Wall Decorations. . 241 
A Painting by Allyn Cox for the House of Andrew Calhoun, 
Atlanta, Georgia . . AS en ar . 241 
Living-room by Chapin, Harper & Dutel . . 242 
Living-room in the House of Mrs, William C. Langley, Westbury, 
Long Island . . 243 
Doorway from the Dining-room into the Hall of the ‘James 
Duke House, OE Net. Q44 


In the House of J. D. Leland, Pride’s Crossing, “Massachusetts Q45 
A Balanced Grouping of Old Pictures Similarly Framed, in the 
House of Henry D. Sleeper, Gloucester, Massachusetts . . 250 
Carved, Painted, and Gilded Mirror over a Fine French Provincial 
Commode, Musée F ragonard, Grasse, France. 250 
A Lacquered English Mirror over the Mantel in the Apartment 
of Mrs. E. Van R. Thayer. 
Dining-room in the House of Mrs. Randolph ‘Ortman, ‘Greenwood, 


Virginia ; : cae . 251 
A Useful Bedroom Mirror over a ‘Commode . 252 
An Old Gesso Italian Mirror of the Eighteenth Century, Used as 

an Over-mantel . 252 


ne Mirror-room in the House of Mrs. John Magee at Palm Beach 252 

A Fine Chippendale Gilt Mirror Used as Over-mantel . . . . 253 
An Old Embroidered Hanging as the Principal Wall Decoration i in 

a Spanish Room, Au Quatriéme, John Wanamaker, New York 253 
A Renaissance Tapestry on the Curved Wall of a Staircase . . 253 
French Eighteenth Century Tapestries Framed and Hung as 

Pictures in a Drawing-room . 254 
A Beautiful Bit of Gothic Tapestry Framed and Used as an Over- 

mantel . . 255 
Small Hanging Book-shelves that are Useful and Decorative above 

a Writing-desk . . « 255 
Old Italian Carvings Holding Gilt Angels Bearing Torches . . 258 
Pieces of Old Wood-carving Flanking a Window . . . .. «© 258 


“ By the term decoration we understand the combination 
of objects and ornaments that the necessity of variety intro- 
duces under several forms, to embellish, to enrich, and to 
explain the subjects whereon they are employed. 

“The art of decoration, so as to add to the beauty of an 
object, is, in other words, that of carrying out the emotions 
already produced by the general form and parts of the object 
itself. By its means the several relations of the whole and the 
parts to each other are increased by new combinations; new 
images are presented to the mind whose effect is variety, one 
great source of pleasure. 

“From these observations two general rules may be de- 
duced in respect to decoration. First, that it must actually 
be or seem to be necessary. Second, that such objects must be 
employed in it as have relation to the end of the general object 
of the design. We are not to suppose that all parts of a work 
are susceptible of ornament. Taste must be our guide in ascer- 
taining where decoration is wanted, as well as the quantity 
requisite. The absence of it altogether is in many cases a mode 
of decoration. As in language its richness and the luxuriance 
of images do not suit all subjects, and simplicity in such cases 
is the best dress, so in the arts of design many subjects would 
be rather impoverished than enriched by decoration. 

“We must therefore take into consideration the character 
of the building to be decorated, and then apply only such orna- 
ment as is necessary and suitable to that character. We may 
judge of its necessity if the absence of it causes a dissatisfac- 
tion from the void space left; of its suitableness, by its develop- 
ing the character.” 

Gwilt’s “ Encyclopedia of Architecture” 


CHAPTER I 
INTRODUCTION 





CHAPTER I 
INTRODUCTION 


EF. AN unofficial order were abruptly issued that 
| every human being in the breadth and length of 
this great country should adopt the same cut and 
the same colour of clothes, is it conceivable that men, 
women, and children would hasten to obey without pro- 
test, and without regard for individual preferences as 
to colour and style? | 
. Yet to a large extent this is exactly what has hap- 
_ pened with interior walls during the last decade. 
A sort of edict was issued about ten years ago by 
| those who were the arbiters of good taste in house- 
| furnishing that the plain wall was a desirable back- 
| ground, which avoided any possible offence against 
colour or decorative textiles or arrangement of pic.”’ 
tures and hanging ornaments. Lo! without dissent, 
_ the whole country forthwith put its houses mto uniform. 
Hotels, apartments, private dwellings—all followed 
“suit. Wherever you turn, the plain plaster wall con- 
fronts you, or the wall more or less adequately panelled 
with thin wood mouldings. And to complete the uni- 
formity, nine out of ten of these wall surfaces are 
painted tan or putty colour. 

It is a monotonous and characterless background 
hat we have created for ourselves by submitting so 
unquestioningly to the imposition of this law, and we 
have lived long enough with it for our minds and our 

ae 19 


es 


20 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


thoughts to become putty-coloured about most decora- 
tive ideas. : 

Of course, a neutral background has been the 
‘‘safest’’ possible thing for the great mass of people 
who have no special knowledge of what is generally 
called ‘‘ decoration.’’ It can be absolutely disregarded 
in the choosing of curtains and floor coverings and 


upholsteries, since it does not intrude itself in any way. 


into the scheme. If it contributes nothing, neither does 
it detract in any way from the general effect. This is 
doubtless why it has become ubiquitous. 

Lately, however, there has been an encouraging 
tendency to introduce something besides drab colours 
into the tone of the wall, while still preserving plain 
or moulding-panelled surfaces. Apple-green and 
Georgian green have been found pleasant colours to 
live with, and the more courageous have used this 
treatment in drawing-rooms and dining-rooms. Occa- 


sionally, too, we find a yellow room that is like a> 


i eath of sunshine, or a lacquer red room, or one that 
has taken on the blush of peach colour or a vibration 
of blue. With such backgrounds a new era is beginning, 
which seems to be groping for an expression of indi- 
viduality and personal taste. 

There is particular significance in the fact that a 
demand exists at this moment for a book on decorative 
wall-treatments. It may be that it was necessary to 
live through the era of plain walls in order to arrive 
at a full realization of what the decorated wall means, 
and what delight it can bring into our lives if 
properly employed. 


INTRODUCTION 21 


By the canons of art a wall is required to be 
either a background or a decoration. At the outset it 
must make its choice. It must be one or the other—it 
can rarely be a successful combination of the two. 
To-day many signs point to the renascence of the 
decorative idea. There is a live and healthy interest 
in architectural features like wood-panelling, that in 
itself makes decorative walls. Mural painters are 
perhaps more busily occupied than they have been 
for years. And those who furnish us with wall-papers 
have been among the first to feel the reaction against 
the uniform background that now prevails, for wall- 
papers are and always will be the easiest and least 
costly method of obtaining a decorated wall. 

It is to be earnestly desired that we do not, ina 
new burst of enthusiasm, rush madly from one extreme 
to the other. A decorative wall treatment for every 
room in the house will be no more satisfactory in its 
final results than an unending procession of plain 
walls. The ideal dwelling is one in which the two sys- 
tems of background and decoration alternate so art- 
fully that they interlock and lead into each other with 
constant elements of variety, harmony, and surprise. 

Unquestionably the decorated wall creates problems 
that do not exist in the presence of the plain back- 
ground. Where there is colour and design or architec- 
tural relief on the wall, a room is largely furnished 
before any movable pieces are placed in it. Whatever 
else is added must be a foil and a complement to the 
mural decoration. This is exactly the reverse of the 
treatment employed with a background wall, where 


Q2 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


the movable things in the room are the objects of 
chief importance. 

Colour and pattern, however, are by no means 
barred from the adjuncts of the room that contains a 
decorated wall. On the contrary, such a wall usually 
demands richness of hue and texture in the hangings, 
the floor coverings, and the upholsteries, to give it 
proper balance, but these furnishings must be selected 
discreetly and used intelligently, to be either sub- 
ordinate notes or complementary accents in the 
general scheme. 

Possibly this whole question of the decorated wall 
will be more intelligible if it is clearly understood in 
the beginning that we are dealing with an architectural 
problem. All the different important methods of wall 
decoration, like tiling, fresco-painting, stuccoing, 
wood-panelling, textile-covering, and even wall-paper- 
ing at its best, are so closely allied with the structure 
of a room that they cannot be dissociated or studied 
apart from it. Such treatments, as a matter of fact, 
have been the result of demands made by the architec- 
ture itself. This is one reason why each illustration 
given in this book has been selected to show the decora- 
tion in situ. It would be useless and unprofitable to 
study it in any other fashion. 

In these mural treatments, then, we have a convinc- 
ing example of the real meaning of interior decora- 
tion—a fact that is often forgotten and sometimes not 
understood. We shall have a double reason to be grate- 
ful to the decorated wall if it succeeds in enforcing a 
clearer comprehension of architectural principles. 


INTRODUCTION 23 


In early days the architect of a building was also 
the ‘‘ interior decorator.’’ Nobody else was so sensi- 
ble of the requirements of the structure he had created. 
So there was harmony within and without. The archi- 
tect-decorator dictated and supervised what was to be 
done in the various rooms. All decoration was essen- 
tial. ‘‘ The greatest art of the world was done for its 
place and in its place.”’ 

Not until the two professions were divorced and a 
horde of interior decorators without architectural 
knowledge was let loose on the world, did ornament 
take precedence over architecture in the public mind. 
‘* Decoration,’’ as it is popularly understood to-day, is 
too apt to be trivial and inconsequential. It concerns 
itself largely with the hanging up of draperies, the 
making of lamp-shades, and the creating of enticing 
‘colour schemes.’’ It forgets the fundamentals. 
Half the time it ignores its dependence upon architec- 
ture and the old rule that ‘‘ the real merit of decora- 
tion depends upon its general ordonnance and the 
relation of the parts to the whole.’’ 

An interesting comment was made by a foreigner 
recently, upon looking over a collection of American 
magazines containing illustrations of house decora- 
tions. ‘* How little architecture there is in your 
rooms! ’’ he exclaimed. Is this because architects 
have grown to feel that their province has been 
restricted to exterior work, and that they must leave 
the interior to the decorator, who not infrequently has 
a mistaken notion as to what ‘‘ decoration ’’ actually 
comprises? We shall never have the perfect whole 


24 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


until the decorator and the architect work shoulder to 
shoulder over all the decorative details of a house, and 
the house-owner himself fully realizes the necessity of 
having each ornamental adjunct a sympathetic render- 
ing of the requirements of the home that is being built 
for him. 

In order to accomplish this ideal condition of home- 
making, both architect and decorator should speak the 
same language, and each one, while a specialist in his 
own profession, should understand something of the 
other’s problems. For to their lot it falls to work out 
jointly an expression of the psychology of taste and 
of the fine art of living. 

I shall be more than delighted if this historic review 
of the old methods of wall decoration and their applica- 
tion to modern conditions, as set forth here, proves to 
be of assistance to those who are trying to establish a 
new balance of interest in domestic interiors, either as 
professional or non-professional decorators, 


CHAPTER II 


THE HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT 
OF DECORATED WALLS 





CHAPTER II 


THE HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT OF 
DECORATED WALLS 


\ ), Y HEN we begin to trace the development of 
wall treatments, we find that the history of 
walls is the history of decorated walls. The 

plain wall has no history. 

Decorative wall-treatments as a whole group them- 
selves into eight general classes, each of which has a 
special origin, proceeding from a national inspiration 
and producing a character definitely diverse. 

These various classes are: 

. Reliefs sculptured in marble or stone. 

. Marble veneer. 

Mosaic. 

Tiles. 

. Frescoes and other forms of wall painting. 

. Stucco and plaster ornamentation. 

. Applied hangings, such as tapestries, stamped 
leather, brocades and damasks, printed linens 
and cottons, painted silk or foie, and wall-papers. 

8. Wood-panelling. 

In our examination of these different processes, we 
shall omit the first three, and discuss here only those 
that seem particularly applicable to modern conditions. 
Since mural painting and wood-panelling are the two 
noblest forms of fixed wall decoration, they will be 
given special consideration. 


Roop wpe 


27 


28 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


Necessarily this book must be in many ways a 
summary and a digest, for volumes might be, and, as 
a matter of fact, have been written on each one of the 
various subjects contained in it. We shall, however, 
hope to present in comprehensive and lucid form a 
general survey of the whole question of decorated walls, 

Before considering the various classes of wall 
treatments individually, it seems advisable to devote 
this chapter to a brief general review of their use and 
adaptation in various countries, throughout the periods 
extending from the thirteenth to the end of the eigh- 
teenth century. We shall thus have a historic back- 
ground into which subsequent studies may be fitted. 


GOTHIC WALLS 


With Gothic styles in the various countries of 
Europe, we find a singular richness in the fixed archi- 
tectural decoration of churches and public buildings. 
Mural painting and sculpture flourish everywhere with 
a rare elegance. 

‘¢ The constructor of the buildings delivered to the 
decorator the surfaces which the latter was to orna- 
ment in his fashion. The architect indicated the height 
of the columns, regulated the place of the openings, 
designed the form of niches, defined the development 
of friezes; and the decorator, taking what was de- 
livered to him, accepted the responsibility of his work, 
abandoned himself to his personal inspiration, and 
transformed the field that was open to his activity into 
an arena where he gave free rein to his invention and 


DEVELOPMENT OF DECORATED WALLS 29 


to his fancy. From this resulted a diversity, an abun- 
dance, a prodigality, of ingenious motives, which 
impress a distinct character on the works of this time. 
Craftsmanship, developed to a point near perfection, 
permitted the artist to realize all the dreams that his 
brain conceived. While the chisel of the sculptor made 
cathedrals into lace and chipped the stones of palaces, 
the jeweller executed marvels of delicacy and grace. 
Gold and silver under his fingers became malleable, 
and precious stones mingled their brilliancy with that 
of the metal which the skilful enameller dressed in the 
brilliant colours of his magnificent palette. Ivory, 
wood, iron, transformed themselves into exquisite bits 
of furniture covered with graceful figures and delicate 
bas-reliefs, and glassmakers with their magic colour- 
ings communicated warm vibrations of colour to 
the illumination of these beautiful fancies, which 
developed almost without effort under the hand of 
the decorator.’’? 

But, in spite of this richness of public edifices, the 
dwelling-houses of the time were bare and ascetic, 
except in rare instances. Although built in the same 
style as the churches, with pointed doors and traceried 
windows, they contained few pieces of furniture and 
little in the way of fixed decorations. The nobles in 
France stretched a ciel of painted cloth or tapestry to 
hide the naked timbers of the ceilings. In English 
castles, the walls were of rough stone, which was left 
exposed in all but the ladies’ apartments, where hang- 
ings of tapestry or needlework masked their bareness. 


1 Dictionnaire de VAmeublement Francais, Henri Havard. 


30 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


The simpler houses of the day were of timber with 
plaster filling, inside and out. Italy at this time saw 
the flowering of her early fresco painters, and set the 
fashion for the world with decorated walls. Spain, 
with a sort of savage splendour, used a background of 
plain plaster, softening its severity with brilliant inset 
decorations of glazed tile (plate 200) or colourful 
hangings of magnificent textiles. 


RENAISSANCE WALLS 


The Renaissance still kept some of this diversity of 
motifs, and added the classic elements which it intended 
to copy. Little by little it succeeded in obtaining 
effects wholly by the beauty, the correctness, and the 
elegance of form. 

Italy, during the Early, Middle, and High Renais- 
sance, employed various methods of domestic wall 
decoration. There were rough plaster walls sometimes 
wiped off with different colours on a wet sponge, like 
the spunge walls of the Davanzati Palace (plate 201). 
There were frescoed walls, fully covered with small 
eeometrical designs in colour, often topped with deep 
painted friezes (plate 202). There were stucco decora- 
tions, with grotesques and arabesques, inspired by the 
discovery of ancient Roman stuccoes (plate 203). 
There were also walls with painted decorations above 
a wainscot (plate 204), and those veneered with mar- 
bles, which sometimes were a magnificent array of 
many different colours. In such rooms we find vaulted 
ceilings, whose structural lines are accented with richly 





PLATE 200. THE GREAT STAIRWAY, CASA DE PILATOS, SEVILLE, SPAIN 
The walls are entirely covered with glazed tiles 
Courtesy of William Lawrence Bottomley 





PLATE 201. SALON, FIRST FLOOR, PALAZZO DAVANZATI, FLORENCE 


Spunge walls, tiled floor, and polychrome beamed ceiling. Heavy wooden consoles support the beams 
and make the transition to the perpendicular wall surface 


PLATE 


202. 


DEEP PAINTED 


FRIEZE AND PAINTED CEILING IN THE CASA 
Courtesy of H. D. Eberlein 





PETRARCA 





PLATE 203. SALON, VILLA MADAMA, ROME 
tucco decorations by Giovanni da Udine, and a lunette by Giulio Romano 





PLATE 204. DINING-ROOM IN APARTMENT OF THOMAS KENNION, FLORENCE 


Grisaille paintings and long landscape panels above panelled dado. A late Renaissance background used with 
furniture of a later period 


Restorations by Robert Carrére, architect 














PLATE 205. WOOD-PANELLING OF THE EPOCH OF HENRI II 
WITH PAINTINGS SET INTO THE UPPER TIER OF PANELS 
A small room in the Chateau of Beauregard near Blois 
From “Art Architectural en France,’ by Darcel 


DEVELOPMENT OF DECORATED WALLS 31 


painted borders, or beamed and coffered ceilings gaily 
painted. When ceilings were plain, the corbels were 
decorated. Floors, to form a component part of the 
room scheme, were of tiles or of blocks of marble. 

To France the Renaissance brought different forms 
of expression. Under Louis XII (1498-1515) the walls 
were usually of stone, or of plaster sometimes deco- 
rated with paintings. Movable decorations, such as 
tapestries and painted toiles, were more commonly 
used than fixed decorations. Occasionally, however, 
there was wood-panelling, which formed either a par- 
tial or a complete covering for the wall. This was 
decorated with fine paintings, and was also gilded and 
inlaid with precious woods. Vaulted and ribbed ceil- 
ings, or those done with timber construction, as weil 
as richly painted and gilded wooden ceilings, were in 
favour. Underfoot were floors of brick, stone, or tile. 

Francois Premier (1515-1547) inaugurated other 
styles, still keeping many of the wall treatments of his 
predecessors. In woodwork of his time, mouldings 
were classic in profile and motif. His most notable 
innovation was the introduction of stucco and fresco 
as wall decorations, which he encouraged by summon- 
ing Italian artists to his court to beautify the Palace 
of Fontainebleau. With these new mural treatments, 
vaulted stone ceilings, open-timbered ceilings, and pan- 
elled wood ceilings, enriched with colour and gilding, 
were the general rule, while parquetry or tiling covered 
the floors. 

Complete permanent schemes of decoration began 
to develop under Henri II (1547-1559) (plate 205). 


32 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


Walls with high wooden dadoes or wainscots had deco- 
rated and moulded plaster work above the wood panels, 
and these decorations were coloured and gilded. The 
panels in wood surfaces grew larger. In place of the 
square panel that had formerly prevailed, a diversity 
of shapes was introduced, and carving, gilding, and 
inlay were frequent. When wood-panelling was not 
used, plaster walls were decorated with frescoes 
framed in stucco mouldings, or were wholly covered ~ 
with paintings in the Italian manner. 

Wall hangings of tapestries, and stamped and 
gilded leather, were often to be seen, when fixed decora- 
tions were absent (plate 206). | 

Ceilings during this period were of two sorts— 
either wooden ceilings, beamed, coffered, or panelled, 
which were painted and inlaid; or plaster ceilings, 
painted and modelled. Parquetry and marble floors 
prevailed. 

In England, from the time of Henry VII to the 
Restoration, simple walls of half-timber filled in with 
wattle and daub were used in humbler dwellings (plate 
207), while panelled wainscoting was selected for finer 
residences. The small units of these panels, set in 
plain stiles and rails, were often carved, or at times 
coloured and stained. Fantastic animals were intro- 
duced into them, and human heads in circular frames, 
which were sometimes portraits of different members 
of the family. Under Henry VIII, the design of panel- 
ling known as ‘‘ linen-fold ’’ reached its finest expres- 
sion. Another favourite design of the time was that 
of curved ribs, set back to back (see illustration of 





PLATE 206. OLD FLEMISH LEATHER USED AS COVERING FOR WALLS 


uopuo’yT jo sajivya jo Asoqinod eying °S “WY ‘Sil Jo Asoqyanoy 
osnoy yueysyiniy) 2q4 ULlOL olugo ‘pueda jo 5}10jS} No 94} uo P2}Ve19-91 pue yuo y ulodj} porAoulo}y 
(8L1—9891) aSNOH YodaAL 
LNAUM WVITTIM AM WOOU ANId V NI AOGId-IWLNVW ‘808 ALVId V 40 WOOU-ODNIAIT AHL NI TIVM GAUAAWIL-AIVH = °L08 ALVI1d 





DEVELOPMENT OF DECORATED WALLS 33 


Boughton Manor, plate 703), or a diamond-shaped 
centre, used with arched panel heads. The greatest 
skill of the decorators was lavished on the plaster wall 
above the panelling, which usually bore a beautiful 
frieze of parge work. Not seldom these reliefs were 
coloured and gilt. 

Under the Stuarts, stamped leather for wall cover- 
ings came into vogue, and lacquer panels were some- 
times introduced into wooden walls. The ceiling was 
flat, barrel vaulted, or coved, usually ornamented with 
pargetting. Rooms were suitably completed, some- 
times with floors of stone or tile, but most commonly 
with a flooring of oak boards. 

The Restoration brought in its train a new idea of 
luxury in interior decoration, and English styles made 
a sudden jump into dignified and ordered compositions, 
in which walls and ceilings and floors were studied as 
parts of a composite plan. Inigo Jones worked out 
Palladian styles inspired by Italian influence. Later 
Sir Christopher Wren introduced styles based upon 
French precedents. The divisions of wall-panellings 
were greatly increased in size at this period, and the 
surrounding mouldings changed their contour from 
early Elizabethan forms to the bolder shapes of 
‘Baroque influence (plate 208). Oak, pine, deal, and 
fir were used for panelling, the softer woods being 
employed wherever carving was desired. Woodwork 
was often painted in the French fashion, and occasion- 
ally had decorations of gilt in addition to numerous 
other ornamental adjuncts. 

By the end of the century, painted overdoors, 


34 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


decorative niches (plate 209), and set-in mirrors had 
become important parts of the fixed background. 

In Spain the Plateresque, Herrara, and Churri- 
euera periods of the Renaissance (which corresponded 
to the Early, Middle, and High Renaissance of Italy) 
produced much the same type of walls as contempora- 
neous Italian styles, but tile decorations were prefer- 
ably used in place of frescoes (plate 210). Little wood 
was employed except for doors, lattices, and grills. 
In all of these, the Moorish tradition of small panels 
still prevailed. 


BAROQUE WALLS 


With the development of the succeeding style, the 
Baroque, Italy was caught up in the swift current of: 
romanticism. Smooth plaster walls were used as the 
ground for great pictorial paintings and frescoes, such 
as those of Veronese and Tintoretto and their schools, 
whose work was largely religious, mythological, alle- 
gorical, or historic. 

Simili-architecture was often painted on the walls 
as part of the composition of these great panoramas. 
A painted or inlaid dado formed the base of the wall, 
under such decorations (plates 211 and 212). 

Stucco, too, was largely used in florid, ornamental 
designs as wall embellishment, and wall-paintings were 
enclosed in heavy plaster frames modelled in relief. 

When not painted or stuccoed, walls were covered 
with damask or brocatelle from floor to ceiling 
(plate 212). 

In such environments, the ceiling must do its share 





PLATE 209. EARLY GEORGIAN ROOM WITH PINE PANELLING AND CUPBOARDS 
Courtesy of South Kensington Museum 





PLATE 210, LIBRARY IN THE CASA DEL GRECO, TOLEDO, WITH TILED WAINSCOTING AND 
A FRIEZE OF THE SPANISH CARVED PLASTER KNOWN AS YESERIA 
Courtesy of W. Lawrence Bottomley 





PLATE 211. GRAND SALON IN POGGIO A CAIANO WITH TYPICAL 
BAROQUE PAINTINGS AND HEAVILY ENRICHED CEILING 





PLATE 212, GRAND SALON IN THE VILLA FAVA 


Walls entirely covered with crimson damask, and the room further enriched with celestial paintings 
on the ceiling 








PLATE 213. LOUIS XIII WOOD-PANELLING 
OF A SALON IN THE HOTEL SULLY, PARIS 
From “Art Architectural en France,” by Darcel 





PLATE 214. THE DINING—ROOM, CHATEAU OF DAMPIERRE, 
WITH LOUIS XIV PANELLING 
Courtesy of William Helburn 


DEVELOPMENT OF DECORATED WALLS 35 


in the decorative ensemble: the coved plaster ceilings 
of the Baroque period were, therefore, covered with 
celestial paintings (plate 212). Panelled wood ceilings 
which did not allow of this treatment were richly 
carved, coloured, and gilt. Floors were of marble, 
terrazzo, and stone, painted and varnished. Some- 
times brick floors were laid, and occasionally we find 
the use of parquetry, although not so frequently as in 
French and English rooms of the same epoch. 

In France, the Baroque influence made _ itself 
strongly felt during the reign of Louis XIII (1610- 
1643). As in Italy, stucco reliefs in Baroque designs 
were often used on the walls. Frequently, too, wood- 
panelling was used in large divisions, with strongly 
accented mouldings (plate 213). 

We learn from Heroard’s account of the childhood 
of Louis XIII that this panelling was often painted, 
for he says that the King, when only five years old, 
‘amused himself by studying the fruits and painted 
vases on the panelling, and gave names to them all.”’ 

There were also during this period smooth plaster 
walls with frescoes. A low panelled dado was often 
employed under such decorations, generally painted, 
so that it would contribute its note of colour to 
the room. 

Ceilings were plastered and covered, or beamed, 
with large panels, and richly decorated. Floors were 
of parquetry or marble. 

The influences which showed their inception under 
Louis XIII came to their fullest expression under the 
See monarch, Louis XIV (1648-1715). In their 


36 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


flowering we find the pomp, formality, and magnifi- 
cence that were a personal expression of the King. 

Orders of pilasters divided the walls of formal 
rooms, the intervening spaces being hung with tapes- 
tries, painting's, mirrors, or damask stretched flat on 
the wall. Whole halls and salons were sometimes 
covered with marble veneer. In less formal rooms, 
walls were sheathed with wooden panelling from floor 
to ceiling (plate 214). Above the dado the panel divi- 
sions were large and had shaped heads. Such rooms 
were usually completed by a -bold wooden cornice. 
Richly painted plaster ceilings with elaborate cornices 
of plaster were used in other rooms. Floors were of 
marble and parquetry, both plain and patterned. 

The beginnings of the Baroque style in England 
have been already referred to under the Restoration. 
The reign of William and Mary (1689-1702), that of 
Queen Anne (1702-1714), and the early Georgian 
period saw further developments of the new tendencies. 

Walls were either wholly plastered, or wholly or 
partially panelled with oak, pine, walnut, or cedar 
(plate 215). The panelling was left in natural finish or 
painted. Above the low dado, large rectangular panels 
were used with bold mouldings. Round-headed niches 
with coved shell tops were made a feature of the panel- 
line toward the end of the century, and wooden cor- 
nices were also accented. The Dutch love for lacquer 
and tiles had its reflection in rooms of this period, 
and also the employment of Chinese wall-papers as 
wall coverings. 

Ceilings were plastered, and often decorated with 








PLATE 215. OAK ROOM FROM HAMILTON PALACE, SCOTLAND. DATE ABOUT 1690 


Coat of arms of the Hamiltons carved and set in elaborate wood frame over the mantel 
Courtesy of P. W. French & Co. 


























a 





A 


ATEAU OF RAMBOUILLET 


GaINe THE Or 


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ATE 216. REGE 


PL 


by Darcel 


” 


al en France, 


tectur 


Art Archi 


From 





PANELLING 


LOUIS XV WOOD— 


PLATE 217 


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pusyyON “H Arey Aq ydeisoj0yg 





vssseonen 


pecan 


DEVELOPMENT OF DECORATED WALLS 37 


plaster mouldings and reliefs of flowers and foliage, 
while the favourite material for floors was wood, al- 
though stone, marble, and tiles were used to some 
extent. 

Spain, during this period, still used tiles and gilded 
leather on her plaster walls, in place of the damasks, 
paintings, and wood-panellings that were popular in 
other countries. The elaborate cut-plaster work known 
as yeseria was employed as Italy employed stucco (see 
plate 518). In no other country in the world have 
national traditions been so tenaciously upheld in the 
matter of decoration, and in no other has so wide a 
variety of effect been obtained with such a limited num- 
ber of elemental materials. 

The coved Spanish ceilings of this period were 
painted. Panelled wood ceilings of the same era had 
small divisions which bore intricate carving. Floors 
were of tile, brick, stone, marble, and wood. 

Early in the seventeenth century, the first settlers 
of New England were erecting upretentious houses and 
making them comfortable and useful to live in. As 
might naturally be expected, these dwellings were 
chiefly adaptations of simple English styles, founded 
on the construction of Elizabethan houses. The half- 
timber framing, filled in with wattle and daub, was 
covered on the outside with wooden clapboards as a 
protection against the weather, and its beams and 
posts formed part of the crude decoration of the inte- 
rior walls and ceilings. Sometimes, for greater warmth, 
rooms were covered with a sheathing of matched 
boards, placed vertically. At times only the fireplace 


38 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


wall was treated in this way, the rest of the room being 
crudely plastered. The dominating note of kitchen and 
living-room was the great fireplace. Small windows, 
divided by wooden mullions and fitted with wooden 
casements and diamond-shaped panes set in lead, were 
placed high in the wall. They were few in number, for 
glass was costly and scarce. Many of the Puritan 
fathers were compelled to use oiled paper instead of 
window-glass. Such was the general character of the 
earliest houses in America. 

Comparatively little colour was present in the 
structural composition of these early American inte- 
riors. Colour notes in the rooms came largely from the 
printed and woven stuffs that were brought by the 
colonists from their homes across the sea. In well- 
to-do families could be found rich velvets and brocades 
which had been transported as their dearest posses- 
sions; cushions and hangings of Oriental fabrics 
existed in homes where views of life were not so 
grim and stern as to condemn such objects for being 
tawdry, worldly baubles. 

We read in a chronicle of Edward Johnson written 
in 1642 that ‘‘ The Lord has been pleased to turn all 
the wigwams, huts, and hovels the English dwelt in at 
their first coming, into orderly, fair and well-built 
houses, well-furnished, many of them.”’ 

The Dutch settlers of New Amsterdam brought 
with them the traditions of their national styles, just 
as the English had done, and later the Palatinate 
Germans who settled Pennsylvania introduced another 
style-element into this country. From the modifica- 


DEVELOPMENT OF DECORATED WALLS 39 


tions of these different traditions, which were changed 
and simplified in order to adapt them to conditions of 
workmanship and materials in a new country, eventu- 
ally evolved what may be called ‘‘ American styles.”’ 

Although the first dwellings of this country were 
the continuation of an earlier style epoch, because the 
settlers were not in close touch with the new develop- 
ments in their respective countries, it was not long 
before frequent communication was established with 
the mother lands, and fashions of the day in architec- 
ture and decoration appeared here almost as soon as 
they were in evidence abroad, 


LOUIS xV WALLS 


Baroque styles in European countries developed 
soon after the death of Louis XIV along gayer and less 
formal lines. During the minority of Louis XV, this 
new development was known as the Regence (plate 
216). After the accession of the new king, it was char- 
acterized as the Louis XV or the Rococo. 

Its chief characteristic was emancipation from 
formality and rules. It is the only one of the great 
style periods which is asymmetric in ornamental forms, 
although old traditions still had enough influence to 
control the arrangement of these ornaments in a more 
or less balanced fashion. The general plan of interiors 
‘still remained symmetrical, in spite of the Rococo 
ornament which ran riot among them with shells, 
scrolls, flowers and ribbons, the curve triumphing over 
the straight line. 


AQ DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


In France, wood-panelling was the important fea- 
ture of Louis XV walls, and as great apartments were 
divided up into smaller and more intimate rooms, the 
designs of these panellings increased in charm and 
coquetry. They were usually made of oak or pine in 
curving panels, with shaped heads, painted in delicate 
and vivacious colours. The repetition of high panels 
did much to give a vertical aspect to the rooms, in spite 
of the redundancy of ornamental curves. 

Into such wooden walls were often set canvases 
with decorative paintings, or panels of fabrics, like 
taffeta and brocade and damask in typical Louis XV 
designs. Tapestries, too, in delicate colourings were 
panelled in with wood or plaster mouldings. Wall- 
paper became a favourite decoration of the period, 
designed with small knots and bunches of flowers, or 
with motifs reminiscent of the Chinese. After 1750, 
painted toile and wall-paper almost wholly usurped the 
place of more costly stuffs. 

The plaster ceilings in these rooms were flat or 
coved, and often bore elaborate but delicate stucco 
decorations. The plaster cornice was an important 
note in the room. Floors were principally of par- 
quetry, with the exception of those in vestibules and 
dining-rooms, which were usually of marble. 

Outside of France, this style was never handled 
with the same lightness and delicacy of touch. Its 
manifestations in Germany and Italy were heavy, 
clumsy, and ornate. For this reason the French as a 
rule reserve the title of ‘‘Le Style Louis XV”’ for their 
own works of the epoch and employ the term ‘‘ Rococo”’ 


DEVELOPMENT OF DECORATED WALLS AI 


to describe with an unflattering implication its less 
successful imitations in other countries. 

Italy during this period used little wood-panelling 
on walls, but much stucco and plaster in Rococo 
designs. Hither the background or the design was in 
colour. Panelled dadoes in plaster were the general 
rule. Ceilings were usually of plaster with stucco 
decorations and painting, and floors were largely of 
parquetry, in spite of the frequent occurrence of mar- 
ble, stone, brick, tile, and terrazzo. 

England paid slight attention to the Rococo style 
except in Chippendale’s designs. In a few instances 
walls and ceilings were adorned with low reliefs, which 
principally had Chinoiserie motifs. The influence of 
the Rococo style in England was also to be found in 
the designs of chimney-pieces and door-cases and in 
the stucco frames for paintings that were panelled into 
the walls. But the movement died a natural death 
within twenty years. 

In Spain, however, it flourished lustily, as in Italy, 
with even more florid expressions. Floors continued 
to be made of marble, brick, and glazed tile. 

While European countries were experiencing this 
phase of the Rococo, America, still slightly behind the 
times, was working out earlier Baroque styles, largely 
along the lines of their development in England. The 
general custom in this period, as in the preceding age, 
was the panelling of the fireplace wall, leaving the 
other three walls in plaster above a panelled wainscot 
(plate 218). Panelling, however, showed much greater 
elegance of form and construction than in seventeenth 


42 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


century rooms. Orders of pilasters were often intro- 
duced; carving of classic ornaments was to be found 
on mouldings and friezes and architraves; applied 
relief decoration, carved or moulded in composition, 
was commonly used. The finest houses had ceilings 
with ornamental plaster work, such as those in HEng- 
land and France. Cupboards and niches, built along 
the lines of William and Mary and Queen Anne types, 
were introduced into these panelled rooms. Preten- 
tious interiors, which rivalled those of England, 
existed in some Southern homes and in the houses of 
the rich merchants of Philadelphia, Boston, Ports- 
mouth, and New York. 

On the walls of such rooms, damasks were used, as 
in Kuropean houses. Wall-papers also were frequent. 
Flock papers, made in imitation of brocaded velvets 
and woven stuffs, were great favourites; Chinese and 
French papers, and the English papers of Jackson of 
Battersea, printed in panels with Rococo frames to imi- 
tate stucco designs, still exist where they were installed 
at this time. 

Tapestries and painted canvases were also im- 
ported to use on walls, and at the same time numerous 
wall decorations were painted in the manner of 
frescoes, either directly on the plaster walls, or on 
wood-panelling (plate 219). 

With all these various methods at her command, 
America did not lack variety and interest in mural 
decorations. Carpets and Oriental rugs were laid 
down on the polished wood floors, and painted canvas 
floor coverings also came into vogue. 








OUSE OF WALTER P. MAGEE, LYME, CONNECTICUT 


N EARLY AMERICAN FRESCO—PAINTING IN THE H 
The over-mantel panel is a painting of old Lyme 


Courtesy of Country Life 


PLATE 219. A 








Photograph by Mattie Edwards Hewitt 
PLATE 220. A FINE LOUIS XVI BOISERIE WITH OVER-—-MANTEL PAINTING 
In the former New York residence of Mrs. Oakleigh Thorne 


DEVELOPMENT OF DECORATED WALLS 43 


WALLS OF THE NEO-CLASSIC PERIOD 


The natural reaction against the over-elaborateness 
of the Rococo came in the Kuropean movement which 
was a general return to severely formal classic stand- 
ards, known as the Neo-Classic or New-Classic styles. 

This classic revival brought to Italy the introduc- 
tion of wood-panelled rooms, such as had long been 
popular in Wngland and France. Carving, painting, 
and gilding ornamented these boiseries, and they were 
often further adorned with inset painted panels or 
canvases framed into the wood and surrounded by 
mouldings. Mirrors and toiles peintes were other 
forms of adornment, and walls were in many instances 
covered with fabrics expressing the taste of the day. 
Painted doors and overdoor decorations were greatly 
in vogue. The simple lines of Louis XVI Italian rooms 
were thus enhanced with much colour and richness. 

Little wall-paper was used in Italian interiors, ex- 
cept in those provinces closely adjoining France, where 
French influence was predominant. 

The Directoire, which was the second phase of the 
classic revival, saw greater creative work in Italy 
among furniture styles than in background, although 
mention should be made of the adaptation of Pom- 
peian wall decorations in fresco and paint to salons 
and small rooms. Empire styles, the third phase, fol- 
lowed along the same lines as in France, showing no 
profound originality. 

- The impulse for all three of these classic expres- 
sions came out of France, where they were developed in 
the fullest and most characteristic manner. 


Ad DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


French Louis XVI walls were wood-panelled or 
plastered. Panellings were rectangular in shape 
above low dadoes and all mouldings were of low pro- 
jection. The straight line was everywhere emphasized 
(plate 220). 

Ceilings were usually flat; elaborate rooms had 
painted ceilings, others were plain, or decorated with 
simple designs in classic motifs. In halls, marble was 
used for floors. Ordinary rooms had parquetry, set in 
geometric designs in different coloured woods. 

The surface of walls that were not wood-panelled 
was covered with wall-paper, or fabrics like brocade, 
repp, taffeta, poplin, and striped or printed linen. 
Toile de Jouy was greatly in favour for walls as well 
as for hangings and furniture coverings. 

Often panels were filled with mirrors, paintings, 
tapestries (chapter VI), or classic arabesques (plate 
221). Overdoor and overmirror paintings assumed 
great importance. 

Under the Directoire (1795-1799) many of these 
same styles were continued, but they were simplified 
to the utmost degree, so that Directoire has sometimes 
been called ‘‘Louis XVI stripped to the bone.”’ 
Plaster walls were adorned with Pompeian decora- 
tions. Wood-panelled walls usually had long narrow 
panels alternating with broader divisions. Wall-paper 
continued in use, the deep printed frieze and border 
growing in favour, while designs for the field of the 
wall were often made to simulate draped fabrics. Mar- 
bleizing and marbleized papers were much liked. 

The French Empire (1804-1814) added a sumptuous 


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PLATE 221, 


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WITH ARABESQUES IN FRESCO, RECENTLY RE 





PLATE 222. ADAM STUCCO DECORATION ON OVER-MANTEL PANEL 


AND CABINETS 
In the house of the late Sir Hugh Lane, Cheyne Walk, Chelsea 


<class cee accept Siro 





PLATE 223. 


ROOM ATTRIBUTED TO THE BROTHERS ADAM IN A HOUSE AT 
CARSHALTON, SURREY 


Stucco decoration with inset Wedgwood plaques 


DEVELOPMENT OF DECORATED WALLS = 465 


and vulgar use of gilt to Directoire styles. Walls as 
a rule were flat surfaces, occasionally broken with 
rounded columns. As the dado decreased in impor- 
tance, the frieze was more emphasized. Wall surfaces 
in this period were occasionally decorated with paint- 
ings, but more often covered with woven fabrics in 
Empire designs and strong colours. Movable decora- 
tions became more important as the fixed background 
diminished in interest. 

England’s expression of the revival of classic inter- 
est occurred between 1760 and 1830, its greatest expo- 
nents in the field of decoration being the Adam 
brothers. Seeking their inspiration from the same 
sources as the French, that is to say, in early Roman 
and Greek decorative art, they still adopted many 
French interpretations of these styles, so that the Louis 
XVI and the Adam have a very close kinship, and more 
than a few family traits of resemblance. 

Besides introducing oval, round, octagonal, and 
elliptical rooms into the scheme of English decoration, 
the Adam brothers treated the walls as architectural 
compositions with carefully disposed panels, pilasters, 
capitals, pediments, friezes, and cornices. The decora- 
tion was largely executed in plaster in low relief, and 
at no other period has the plasterer been given such 
an, opportunity to show the widely varied possibilities 
of his art (plate 222). 

Colour was introduced either into the background 
or the reliefs of these walls, and ceilings underwent 
the same treatment, often with the addition of a painted 
central panel. 


46 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


Decorative paintings entered into these schemes to 
a great extent, being set over doorways, above fire- 
places, and often in a well-balanced succession around 
the entire room. Wedgwood plaques designed by 
Flaxman and Lady Templeton were used as the central 
motifs of arabesque panels, or formed the sole orna- 
ments of plain divisions of the wall (plate 223). Niches 
and mirrors also fulfilled an important function in the 
decoration of Adam rooms. 

Floors were of marble or wood, and usually were 
carpeted. 


THE CLASSIC REVIVAL IN AMERICA 


The fact that Neo-Classic styles were on a smaller 
scale than Baroque or Rococo, and therefore were 
capable of greater adaptability to small buildings, made 
them particularly interesting to America. They were 
rapidly adopted here after the close of the War of 
Independence, and are still to-day the styles for which 
American architecture and decoration has the greatest 
sympathy. 

Rooms became higher and followed the English 
developments of octagonal, round, and oval shapes. 
Delicate ornament in classic designs made its appear- 
ance, moulded in hard composition to be affixed to 
wood-panelling. Many walls of smooth plaster existed. 
These were tinted in pale tints, or covered either with 
excellent imported wall-paper or with the simpler de- 
signs which were being manufactured in this country 
at that time (plate 224). 

Toward the end of the Neo-Classic period, America 





5 


PLATE 224. OLD WALL-PAPER, “THE MONUMENTS OF PARIS,’ IN THE HALLWAY OF THE HOUSE OF MRS. EDWARD S. MOORE, 
ROSLYN, LONG ISLAND 





DEVELOPMENT OF DECORATED WALLS 47 


reacted strongly in decorative furnishings to the mode 
of the Empire in France. The Duncan Phyfe furniture, 
of which we are so justly proud, is a direct inspiration 
from French Directoire and Empire styles. Scenic 
papers, which were much in vogue at the time in 
France, were lavishly used in New England homes and 
became one of the characteristic wall decorations of 
early American houses. 

Chinese papers, brought back as curiosities by 
returning travellers and sea captains, also had a 
great vogue. 

The fashion of wall-papers was not so general in 
the Southern States, where wood-panelling or walls 
hung with silk fabrics were usually preferred. 





CHAPTER III 
TILES AS WALL DECORATIONS 








PLATE III. THE BATH-ROOM OF MARIE ANTOINETTE IN THE CHATEAU OF RAMBOUILLET, WITH WALL DECORATION OF DUTCH TILES 


CHAPTER III 
TILES AS WALL DECORATIONS 


ILES were a form of decoration universally be- 
loved by all Oriental countries, centuries before 


the Occident adopted the fashion. Deep as we 
may delve into history, traces of them will still be found 
—in the Pyramids of Egypt, where they were used for 
door-jambs and walls; in Persia, where the mosques 
are rich in this method of decoration; in Assyria and 
Babylon, where Nebuchadnezzar adorned the city gates 
with ‘‘ glazed bricks’’ having blue grounds, and bearing 
figures of white wild oxen with hoofs and horns of gold, 
or yellow oxen with blue manes and hoofs and horns the 
colour of malachite. India, too, made its contribution 
to the development of tiling. 

In all these different countries tiles were ideally 
adapted to climate and living conditions, They were 
sanitary, which was an important consideration in 
insect-ridden localities. Their cool smoothness seemed 
to bring freshness and relief from the hot sun. Their 
brilliancy gave to interiors a richness of colour and 
decoration which was a pleasing substitute for the tex- 
ture of costly marbles. 

Spain and Holland have made the most lavish use 
of tiles of any nations since the fifteenth century, and it 
is to these two countries that we owe many beau- 
tiful tile designs and practical suggestions for their 
employment. 

4 51 


52 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


In their earliest forms, Spanish tiles were nothing 
more than imitations of mosaic. Small pieces of enam- 
elled brick in trenchant colours were combined and 
arranged, sometimes with bits of glass or stone, to give 
the effect of mosaic inlay. In the fourteenth and 
fifteenth centuries this method was abandoned, and an 
attempt was made to create individual designs on sepa- 
rate tiles, shaping and colouring them so that they 
would be varied and complete. This was accomplished 
by covering a surface of colour with narrow bands 
enamelled in white, forming interlaced geometrical 
patterns. The majority of the tiles in the Alhambra 
belong to this period. 

But such a process was tedious and laborious. It 
gave way about 1450 to the method known as ‘‘ cuerda 
seca,’’ or ‘‘ dry cord,’’ by which narrow fillets to outline 
the design were mechanically placed upon the tiles and 
filled with clay and manganese. When fired, shallow 
compartments were formed by these ‘‘ dry cords.’’ 
These were in turn filled with coloured enamels, white 
being used for the interlacings themselves. In the 
provinces of Andalusia and Castile, this process was 
in vogue for a hundred years or more. Then arose the 
method of concave stamping, or cwenca. 

By the cuenca method, the designs intended to re- 
ceive coloured enamel were impressed into the tiles, 
their edges being left in relief. The depressions were 
then ornamented and the tiles were fired. Until the 
beginning of the eighteenth century this was the usual 
process for making Spanish decorative tiles. 

Polychrome painting on tiles was introduced into 








PLATE 300. THE FIREPLACE END OF THE DINING—ROOM IN THE HOUSE 
GREENWICH, CONNECTICUT 
Chimney-breast and window embrasures are covered with old Dutch manganese tiles with inset tile pictures 


ELON H. HOOKER, 





PLATE 301. OLD PERSIAN TILES USED ON THE STAIR-WALLS OF THE HALLWAY 
IN THE NEW YORK HOUSE OF THE LATE STANFORD WHITE 


TILES AS WALL DECORATIONS 53 


Spain by an Italian, Francisco of Pisa, who settled in 
Sevilla between 1503 and 1508 and won a great reputa- 
tion for his altarpieces and architectural details con- 
structed with tiling. In various cities of Valencia, like 
Manises and Paterna, are found numerous examples 
of the white enamelled tiles painted with blue, which 
were a specialty of this province. Manises produced 
lustre tiles as well. Sevilla became famous for the 
Triana tiles. Talavera created still another sort, 
largely in blue and yellow designs, which were bap- 
tized with the name of the city where they were 
manufactured. 

The old Moorish traditions of geometrical patterns 
mainly prevailed in these districts. Flowers and 
plants, coats of arms, animals, and occasional figure 
compositions also occurred. 

During the early stages of tile-making in Spain and 
Italy, these decorative enamelled blocks were used to 
embellish walls. Late in the fifteenth century and early 
in the sixteenth, they were introduced into pave- 
ments, especially in the chapels of famous cathedrals. 
Majolica, however, was too soft to stand the constant 
wear of worshipping feet and knees, and few such 
floors are now in existence. In their place, in the sev- 
enteenth and eighteenth centuries, were put pavings 
of plain buff or red tiles, decorated tiles being reserved 
for walls and fireplaces. 

In Germany, France, and England, encaustic tiles 
were made and used as pavements before Spain 
thought of employing her precious majolica tiles in this 
fashion. Such tiles were composed of ordinary red 


54 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


brick-clay, baked in a mould, which left a sunken design 
outlined by broad divisions. The sunken spaces were 
filled with a thick white pipe-clay paste, dusted with 
sulphite of lead, and fired. A yellowish-white pattern 
on a red or chocolate-coloured ground resulted, covered 
with a natural lead glaze, which was found to have far 
greater qualities of resistance than the majolica tiles 
of Spain and Italy. 

For many years the making of tiles in England was 
a secret process, which remained in the hands of certain 
religious orders, who produced practically all tiles used 
as pavings in the churches. With the downfall of the 
monasteries under Henry VIII, English manufacture 
practically came to a standstill, and for the two suc- 
ceeding centuries the majority of tiles used were im- 
ported from abroad. 

In the eighteenth century, Liverpool became famous 
for printed tiles, made by Sadler and Green, whose 
designs were transferred from copper plates, and were 
mostly printed in black. These printed tiles had close 
kinship with the tableware made in the same fashion, 
and were greatly beloved in America. 

The handbook of the new American wing at the 
Metropolitan Museum quotes a letter written in 1774 
by Adam Babcock of Newport, in which he says: ‘‘I 
designed to have given you money eno’ to have bot me 
76 coper plate Tiles for my Chambers * * * [I 
should choose the Tyles all of different Figures—and 
not the one side of the Fire Place like the other, if there 
is variety eno’.’’ 

At Bristol and Lambeth, in England, painted tiles 


TILES AS WALL DECORATIONS 55 


were being manufactured at the same period. France 
produced decorative tiles at Rouen, Nevers, and Mar- 
seilles. Indeed, every Kuropean country made tiles in 
the various fashions of its potteries. 

Both England and America favoured the famous 
Delft tiles, which were made in Holland from the com- 
mencement of the seventeenth century, and which were 
generally white, decorated with blue. Many of the 
earlier designs show the influence of Chinese taste. 
Very popular in America were Dutch ‘‘Scripture 
tiles,’? bearing vivid realistic scenes of sacred history, 
which were often set around fireplace openings and 
played an important part in the teaching of Biblical 
lore when the family circle gathered around the hearth. 

The fashion of blue and white tiles was followed 
in the eighteenth century by the vogue for designs done 
in manganese, a reddish sort of purple, which attained 
nearly as great popularity as the famous Delft blue. 

Besides ‘‘ repeating tiles,’’ which combined to form 
a continuous geometric pattern, and individual tiles 
which showed complete separate designs, many “‘ tile- 
pictures ’? were made in Holland. In such composi- 
tions each tile played its réle as a small part of the 
design. When fitted together they formed sometimes 
a vase of flowers, sometimes a characteristic Dutch 
landscape, and sometimes a miniature reproduction of 
a painting by one of the masters. 

Greatly prized by their owners, these tile-pictures 
were often framed and hung in place of paintings on 
the wall, or they were skilfully embodied in an all-over 
tiled surface in such a way that they interrupted the 


56 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


~ 


repeating pattern and focused attention on impor- 
tant points. 

It is worth recalling the fact that Ruskin in the 
‘¢ Seven Lamps of Architecture ’’ lauds tiling as being 
a true, beautiful and practical form of decoration, ex- 
celling almost all other materials in permanence and 
durability. 


THE PRACTICAL USE OF TILING 


Tiles may be used as wall decorations in one of 
three ways: 

1. They may cover the wall surface entirely, the tiles 
being either a solid colour, a plain colour alternat- 
ing with a design, or a design repeated continu- 
ously. 

2. They may be used in panels set into plain plaster or 
wood walls. 

3. They may be used merely as accents of structural 
lines, 2.e., at door or window frames, in dadoes and 
stair risers, or around fireplace openings. 

The commonest use of tiles for an all-over surface 
will be found in bathrooms and in kitchens, where they 
are essentially practical, since they can be scrubbed 
and cleaned at will. 

But tiles need not be confined to bathrooms and 
kitchens ; there are other rooms in the house where they 
can be used on the walls in a decorative and beautiful 
fashion. 

The fireplace end of a dining-room often gives op- 
portunity for a treatment of this sort. That it is 
thoroughly effective may be seen in studying the illus- 





PEAR SOS 


PLATE 302. WINDOW IN THE CASA DE PILATOS IN PLATE 303. DOORWAY IN THE CASA DE PILATOS 
SEVILLE, SPAIN SEVILLE 
ith tile walls and heavily carved and panelled window-shutters Tile walls around a carved walnut door 
Courtesy of William Lawrence Bottomley Courtesy of William Lawrence Bottomley 





Copyright by Amemiya 


PLATE 304. LIVING-ROOM IN THE HOUSE OF GLENN STEWART ON THE EASTERN SHORE 
OF MARYLAND 


Deep ivory walls of antique smooth plaster with dado, alcove, and fireplace covered with Tunisian tiles in 
green, yellow, blue, and chocolate. Into the walls of the alcove are set tile pictures with Persian flowers 


Bradley Delehanty, architect 





TILES AS WALL DECORATIONS 57 


tration of a dining-room in Greenwich, Connecticut 
(plate 300). Here the mantel-breast and the window- 
embrasures are covered with old Dutch tiles in manga- 
nese colour. Added interest is given by the tile-pictures 
of varying shapes and sizes, which are set into the 
returns of the chimney-breast and the window-embra- 
sures, the largest and most important being reserved 
for the space over the fireplace opening. The hearth, 
the low dado under the windows, and the flooring to the 
edge of the chimney-breast are also tiled. The rest of 
the large room has plain plaster walls; this cheerful 
and entertaining end wall is the whole decoration of 
the room. It was installed by McKim, Mead & White, 
after a plan made by Stanford White for a room in his 
own house on Long Island. 

Stanford White seems to have been one of the archi- 
tects who understood tiles and enjoyed using them. 
An interesting arrangement of Old Persian tiles may 
be seen in the illustration of the hallway of his New 
York house in plate 301. The discreet employment of 
the patterned wall surface and its combination with 
other materials is especially notable. 

In conjunction with rough plaster walls, no other 
decoration is more suitable than that of gaily coloured 
tiles. Spain has a picturesque habit of tiling the re- 
cesses of a room; door- and window-embrasures (plates 
302 and 303), niches, lavabos, and window seats are 
usually covered with tile designs, which give relief to 
an otherwise monotonous wall surface. When a tiled 
dado and a chimney-piece of the same design are added, 
the room takes on a vivid aspect of colour and warmth, 


58 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


in spite of the fact that three-quarters of its walls are 
of plain sand-finished plaster. 

Suggestions of this sort are very useful for dwell- 
ings in California and in Florida, where Spanish types 
of houses seem so suitable. In a house recently con- 
structed on the eastern shore of Maryland, they have 
been carried out in more than interesting fashion, using 
green, yellow, blue, and chocolate-coloured Tunisian 
tiles (plate 304). The walls of the living-room in these 
illustrations are of deep, ivory plaster, with an antique 
finish. A tiled dado, headed by a design of regularly 
recurring pointed teeth, runs around the base of the 
walls. At one end of the room is an alcove entirely 
covered with tiles of a grayish ground with inset panels 
bearing large Persian flowers. This is balanced at the 
opposite end by an alcove panelled in walnut in Spanish 
Gothic style. 

Tiles may be combined with wood quite as success- 
fully as with plaster. An illustration of this may be 
seen in the Dutch room which has recently been in- 
stalled in the Art Institute of Chicago (plate 305). 
One entire end of the room is wood-panelled; the other 
walls are tiled, three different arrangements of Dutch 
tiles being used to form the field of the wall. The blue 
and white dado contains rural or Scriptural designs; 
the upper wallis formed of plain white tiles, set square; 
the frieze is composed of the same tiles set diagonally 
and finished at the foot by a band that repeats the 
border of the dado. The floor is of alternating quar- 
ries of yellow and green. Gleaming brass and copper 
- hung on the walls, dark wood, a gaily painted cheese 


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PLATE 305. DUTCH TILE ROOM FROM FRIESLAND, IN THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO 
Late seventeenth century 








PLATE 306. PANEL OF OLD TALAVERA TILES IN BLUE AND YELLOW, IN THE 
HOUSE OF HENRY CHAPMAN MERCER, DOYLESTOWN, PENNSYLVANIA 





PLATE 307. THE TEA—HOUSE OF MRS. E. T. STOTESBURY AT PALM BEACH 
The prevailing colour of the tiles is brilliant blue, produced under the direction of Zuloaga 





pa 


PLATE 308. PATIO IN THE HOUSE OF THE LATE MRS. JACK GARDNER OF BOSTON 
NOW THE ISABELLA GARDNER MUSEUM 


The walls tapestried with old Mexican tiles 


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TILES AS WALL DECORATIONS 59 


cupboard and Kas, and the bright colours of old Delft 
pottery make this a most inviting dining-room, 


TILE WALL-PANELS 


In hallways and passageways many colourful 
effects are obtainable by inserting panels of tile into 
a large wall space, where they take the place of a pic- 
ture or of a painted decoration. The use of a great 
block of old blue and yellow Talavera tiles in this 
fashion may be seen in plate 306. The same treatment 
might also be followed in a dining-room. 

Halls and patios are particularly susceptible to tile 
decorations. A hallway with a tiled dado, which makes 
the circuit of the room and follows up the stairs, with 
the riser of each step in a harmonizing design and 
colour, and with floor and treads of natural colour baked 
clay having occasional polychrome inserts, is a hallway 
that reproduces the feeling of old Spain, and brings 
life and colour into a house. 

Although the scope of this book is confined to domes- 
tic interiors, we cannot here resist the impulse to take 
one glance at the possibilities of decorative tile treat- 
ments in exterior walls. A painting by Aranda in the 
Cleveland Museum of Art shows a typical use of tile 
in an old Spanish patio. The arched doorway is sur- 
rounded by some of the fine cut plaster work, or yeseria, 
and the high wainscoting is of brilliant Spanish tiles, 
bordered and composed in panels. The floor is the 
regulation floor used when polychrome decorations 
were employed on the walls—plain, with a central pat- 
tern of the less resistant enamelled and patterned tiles. 


60 DECORATIVE WALL-~TREATMENTS 


Another typical tile decoration for a patio may be 
seen in the illustration of the tea-house of Mrs. K. T. 
Stotesbury at Palm Beach (plate 307). The colour 
scheme of this patio is a brilliant blue, produced under 
the direction of Zuloaga. Specially interesting is the 
manner in which the tile has been used to outline the 
doorway. This framing accent, flanked by two wall 
panels of antique tiles, relates the structure to the 
fountain in the centre of the little courtyard and creates 
a definite Spanish atmosphere. 

A patio in the house of the late Mrs. Jack Gardner, 
of Boston, which is now the Isabella Gardner Museum, 
has the walls beautifully tapestried with old Mexican 
tiles (plate 308). 


THE TILED KITCHEN 


Old Spanish kitchens with their polychrome tiles 
are a delight to the decorator, even if they do not always 
conform to the requirements of the modern housewife. 
What could be more enchanting than a kitchen where 
the stove, the sink, and the table are formed of tiles 
patterned with flowers and vines, while just enough of 
the same decoration is employed on the walls to give 
a vivid background for shining pots and pans? 

In Son Sarria, Mallorca (plates 309 and 310), is such 
a joyous kitchen. The tiles have bright blue and yellow ~ 
designs on a white ground. There are other delights 
in this old room. For example, the shelves that contain 
homely utensils have a narrow band of design along 
their edges. The long seat that holds water jars stands 
against a brilliant tile wall panel. The tiled range is 





PLATE 311. BATHROOM IN THE HOUSE OF GLENN STEWART 


Decorations of Persian tiles 
Bradley Delehanty architect 





PLATE 312. MANTEL IN THE RESIDENCE OF CHARLES HENRY WILSON AT PELHAM 


The design of the tile facing is made up from an old 15th century lace pattern, and varies in tone from 
deep russet brown to lighter brown with occasional touches of orange 


Tiles by American Encaustic Tiling Co. Julius Gregory, architect 


TILES AS WALL DECORATIONS 61 


set under a great hood which extends across the whole 
side of the room, to carry off the fumes of charcoal. 

Such a kitchen may not contain all the modern im- 
provements of gas and electricity, but it evidently con- 
tains beauty, and many suggestions that will furnish 
food for thought when one is considering the use of 
tiles in a present-day house. The long kitchen-seat, 
for example, is an excellent idea for a hallway—the 
tiled table is a far from impractical idea for the 
kitchen itself, 


THE TILED BATHROOM 


Already we have referred to the bathroom as being 
the location where tiles are most commonly used. With 
little imagination, plain white enamelled tiles are gener- 
ally chosen for this purpose and placed without the 
slightest attempt to gain decorative effect. What 
beautiful things might be done with tiles in this 
particular spot if a little more taste and thought were 
expended! 

When a bathroom was made for Marie Antoinette 
at Rambouillet, the walls were covered with Dutch tiles 
in manganese, whose repeating designs were varied 
by tile pictures, set in at intervals (colour plate number 
II). Tile pictures of this sort are obtainable to-day, 
not alone in tiles of antique manufacture. What is 
there to prevent the use of one or two such decorations 
as relieving notes, if we still insist on keeping to white- 
tiled bathroom walls? 

And why should we not sometimes have walls of 
coloured tiles, according to our complexions and our 


62 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


tastes? For tiles are made to-day in every shade of 
colour imaginable. 

At least, if we insist on white, why not give a touch 
of colour by using a band of decorative design at the 
head of the wainscoting, repeating this note in the 
floors? The white-tiled bathroom is as much a matter of 
‘‘follow the leader’’ as the plain wall in other parts 
of a house. 

Much imagination and ingenuity have been shown 
in bathrooms in the Glenn Stewart house (plate 
311). The tubs are sunk below the floor level, and the © 
walls are decorated with wainscot and panels of Persian 
tiles. The Spanish feeling of the entire house is carried 
out in detail, even in these small and intimate rooms. 


CHAPTER IV 
FRESCOED AND PAINTED WALLS 





CHAPTER IV 
FRESCOED AND PAINTED WALLS 
PART I 


HE art of fresco-painting has been in all ages 
the greatest glory of Italian walls. Largely 


through the teaching of Italian masters, it has 
been disseminated among the various countries of 
the world. 

Real fresco is not to be confounded with mural 
paintings done in oil or tempera, for fresco has a dis- 
tinct process of its own, unlike that of any other kind 
of painting, and its soft colours and luminous qualities 
are absent from mural decorations executed by other 
methods. 

The name, ‘‘ fresco,’’? describes to a certain extent 
the manner of the work, which is done while the plaster 
is still fresh, or wet. It is a somewhat complicated 
process, for a surface that is to be frescoed must be 
expressly and carefully prepared. Two and generally 
three coats of plaster are necessary to form the body 
of the wall. The first consists of lime, sand, and pow- 
dered brick, which is allowed to dry before a second 
coat of the same materials is applied and dampened 
with water. Over this comes the top coat, formed of 
lime, fine sand, and powdered marble, which is to re- 
ceive the colour. But this final coat is not put on all at 
one time. Only that portion which can be painted dur- 
ing an artist’s day is spread on the wall each morning. 

65 - 


66 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


If the fresco painter in unable to complete the surface 
while it is still wet, it must be removed, and a new layer 
imposed when needed, because, once dry, plaster does 
not readily absorb the colours. The object of fresco- 
painting is to have the colour dry in the wall and be- 
come an integral part of it. The design cannot then 
disappear until the wall itself crumbles or cracks. 

Rapidity of execution in frescoing is therefore a 
necessity. Most artists, to facilitate their work, make 
full-size cartoons or sketches, and transfer the design, 
either by ‘‘pouncing’’ or by pressing heavily over the 
lines, so that they are quickly and clearly marked on 
the wet plaster surface. 

The pigments used in early frescoes consisted of 
earth colours, finely ground, and mixed with some 
‘‘binder,’’ which varied greatly, according to climes 
and countries. In southern lands, fig juice and eggs 
were the usual ingredients; in the north, where fruit 
trees were scarce, honey took the place of fig juice. 
Glue-size, made from the hoofs and horns of animals, 
was also employed. Wine and vinegar were used to 
dilute the colours. 

Certain tints, like blue, which are affected by the 
action of the lime in the plaster, were often retouched 
after the wall was dry. Gold and silver, too, were put 
on when the plaster had set, and the halos of saints 
were sometimes incised on this background. It is be- 
heved that many of the old masters, among them 
Giotto, Pisano, and Cimabue, worked with this com- 
bination of fresco buono and fresco secco methods, 
starting their painting on a wet wall and finishing it 


FRESCOED AND PAINTED WALLS 67 


later. Dry fresco retouching, unfortunately, suffers by 
exposure — hence the deplorable condition of much 
early work. 

ITALY 

Although the history of fresco-painting began be- 
fore the Christian era, its greatest development for 
decorative purposes commenced in Italy in the thir- 
teenth century. The wall at that time was treated 
purely as a flat surface, and the decoration was in 
perfect harmony with the architectural setting. 

The most eminent fresco painter of this age was 
Giotto (1276-1337), who in the course of his long and 
busy life filled Italy with work that was the inspira- 
tion and the education of generations of painters who 
followed him. Giotto was a realist. With his small 
knowledge of anatomy, he tried to depict thing's as they 
actually existed. From the time when he was found by 
Cimabue, a child among the sheep on a Tuscan hillside, 
drawing the outline of one of the animals upon a stone, 
his whole aim was to paint incidents as they occurred 
in home life and to tell a story simply, by gesture and 
action. He did not know how to model his figures ac- 
curately, but they stand up in flat relief, and are 
grouped with vivid decorative effect. Under his influ- 
ence fresco-painting became narrative decoration. 

The greater part of the frescoes of Giotto and 
Masaccio and other artists of this period were religious 
paintings, ordered for churches, chapels, monasteries, 
and convents. But in the fourteenth century domestic 
walls were often entirely covered with frescoes. Fre- 
quently these decorations are found in small geometric 


68 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


designs, usually having a deep ornamental frieze band- 
ing the top of the wall at the junction of the ceiling. 
Such a room may be seen in the illustration of the 
Palazzo Davanzati (plate 400). The pattern covers 
the widow-embrasure and tympanum, but the hood of 
the chimney-piece is left undecorated. On the walls, 
the design is made to appear like drapery caught at the 
top at regular intervals, and bordered on all sides. 
Such frescoes must have been made in imitation of 
woven hangings arranged in this fashion in homes of 
the wealthy. We know that walls were often hung with 
velvets and rich fabrics on gala days and festas, but 
such stuffs were too precious to be submitted to every- 
day wear and tear. It is reasonable to suppose that 
the walls themselves were covered with frescoed dra- 
peries so that they would not seem stark and bare when 
the real hangings were taken down. 

Another fresco of this sort exists in the Villa Bar- 
dini, just outside the gates of Florence. The arcaded 
frieze, through its openings, gives glimpses of the tops 
of orange and olive trees; below is suspended a hang- 
ing in diapered design, with broad folds. To stand in 
the room gives one the sensation of being in a loggia 
enclosed with hangings. 

The ceilings associated with frescoed walls at this 
epoch, were richly decorated in red, blue, green, black, 
and white, the structural lines being accented by small 
decorative borders. 

A similar use of frescoed drapery is found on the 
lower walls of the Sistine Chapel, a century later. Here 
the design has been placed without consideration for 





PLATE 400. A SMALL QUATTROCENTO FRESCOED ROOM IN THE 
PALAZZO DAVANZATI, FLORENCE 


Giving an excellent idea of an Italian interior of this period 





PLATE 401. PAINTED WALL IN THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY CASTELLO 


DI POPPI IN THE CASENTINO. RESTORED IN 1907 


The design of the dado represents tiles; the field of the wall has a geometrica 
design ; the frieze is a procession of shields with heraldic blazonings 


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FRESCOED AND PAINTED WALLS 69 


the falling of the folds. On great occasions this part of 
the wall is covered with sumptuous fabrics, which are 
reserved for high church festivals. 

Often, instead of a drapery design, small geometri- 
eal figures and compartments in rich, soft colours cov- 
ered the wall in a flat, all-over arrangement, as.in the 
Villa Palmieri and the little room of the Palazzo Mac- 
chiavelli, in Florence. The Castello di Poppi, restored 
to its original decoration in 1907, is covered with a tile 
design (plate 401). 

In the simple matter of pictured draperies, as well 
as in narrative frescoes, the fifteenth century carried 
out to the fullest the realistic ideas which Giotto had 
initiated in his day. 

‘‘Tt became the fashion to introduce contemporary 
costumes, striking portraits, and familiar incidents into 
sacred subjects, so that many pictures of this period, 
though worthless to the student of religious art, are 
interesting for their illustration of Florentine customs 
and character. At the same time painters began to imi- 
tate landscapes and architecture, loading the back- 
ground of their frescoes with pompous vistas of palaces 
and city towers, or subordinating their figures to fan- 
tastic scenery of wood and rock and seashore. * * * 
Gardens please their eyes, and birds and beasts and 
insects. Whole menageries and aviaries, for instance, 
were painted by Paolo Ucello. Others again abandoned 
the old ground of Christian story for the tales of Greece 
and Rome; and not the least alarming products of the 
time are antique motifs treated with the freshness of 
romantic feeling. * * * 


70 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


‘‘Tn this way the manifold efforts of the workers in 
the first half of the fifteenth century prepared the 
ground for the great painters of the Golden Age.’’? 

Meantime painters were learning the rules of per- 
spective and anatomy, and bringing into their mural 
decorations elements that submerged much of the fine 
simplicity of the childhood of the art. Benozzo Gozzoli, 
carried away by his delight in the problems of fore- 
shortening and perspective, crowded the walls with 
magnificent buildings, animals, and homely incidents 
from real life. One of his important decorations is 
shown here (plate 402)—the chapel of the Riccardi 
Palace in Florence. 

Fra Filippo Lippi, Ghirlandajo, and Botticelli were 
other great frescoists of the fifteenth century in Flor- 
ence, working under the encouragement and the patron- 
age of the Medici rulers. Some frescoes of Botticelli 
which once adorned a country house of the Torna- 
buoni, between Correggio and Fiesole, and which are 
now in the Louvre, are illustrated in plate 403. 

With the Cinquecento, mural painting became 
architectonic in character. The use of oil as a medium 
began to be established, and this had much to do with 
the development of the new realism, since it permitted 
the expression of atmospheric planes which had not 
been possible with fresco. There was also a change in 
the architecture of rooms which coincided with the 
change in medium. For the two previous centuries, 
vaulted ceilings had been the rule in Tuscany ; now even 


*“ The Renaissance in Italy.” The Fine Arts, by John Addington 
Symonds. 





PLATE 403, FRESCO BY BOTTICELLI FORMERLY IN A COUNTRY HOUSE BETWEEN CAREGGI AND 
FIESOLE AND NOW IN THE LOUVRE 
The painting represents Lorenzo Tornabuoni and the Liberal Arts 





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PLATE 404. WALL-—PAINTING BY VERONESE IN A VILLA AT MASER 
All of the architectural details, including the niches, pilasters, door-frame, and pediment, are painted on the wall 


FRESCOED AND PAINTED WALLS 71 


great halls were constructed with flat ceilings except 
on the main floor. 

‘‘Hor a while the mouldings were delicate, but soon 
these mouldings in relief, which had superseded the 
painted borders of the fifteenth century, grew large and 
ponderous; oval and round medallions were surrounded 
by heavy wreaths, caissons were filled with such high 
reliefs of stucco and wood that a richer and more real- 
istic treatment of the pictorial surface suited them, 
while the depth of oil painting seemed to harmonize 
with the masses of gold and the deep shadows result- 
ing from the heavy carving of the framing.’’ ? 

Artists now forgot all about giving their work the 
quality of mural flatness. They painted walls exactly 
as if they were canvases on easels. Mural paintings 
became huge pictures framed in architecture. 

Much of this architecture was a painted illusion, 
instead of being a construction of the builders. Wher- 
ever there were great plaster wall-spaces not covered 
with frescoes, figures, or landscapes, painted archi- 
tecture became common, especially in Tuscany. So 
perfectly were these elaborate architectural schemes 
carried out that they seemed actually in relief. Cor- 
nices, pilasters, niches with figures, and pediments 
over doors were done in light and shadow in the most 
convincing manner. In the Palazzo del Té, at Man- 
tua, and in the Palazzo Pitti in Rome are rooms done in 
this style. Of the former, Mr. Odom, in his book on 
Italian furniture, gives the following description: 


?Edwin H. Blashfield in the Dictionary of Architecture and 
Building. 


72 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


‘‘In one of the chambers a coffered ceiling, deco- 
rated in gold and green, has a frieze of putti inter- 
twined with arabesques. On the walls an elaborate 
architectural scheme is painted with coupled pilasters, 
between which are antique figures and busts pictured 
in the same manner. 

‘‘Similar schemes are found in many of the Vene- 
tian villas. Painted on the walls in the vestibule of the 
Villa of Franzolo, is a pergola with bronze figures on 
each side, while in the same villa the great hall has 
Corinthian columns well given in chiaroscuro. This 
was undoubtedly done to reduce the cost that would 
have been entailed in carrying out these designs in a 
more concrete substance.’’ 

A villa at Masér in Italy is decorated in this fashion 
with realistic columns and panelled figures (see plate 
404), and the Villa La Massa at Bagni a Ripoli (plate 
405) 1s another admirable example of this treatment. 

Raphael, Veronese, Titian, and Tintoretto made use 
of painted architecture to complete their great decora- 
tions and bind them together. Not every one who sees 
the Sistine Chapel for the first time realizes that the 
ceiling is in reality only a flat surface, transformed into 
lofty vaulting by the perspective of a master hand. 

This trick of simili-architecture made its way into 
other countries. It is even found a century later in 
Spain (plate 406), in the Casa di Pilatos, where the 
panel mouldings on the walls and the entire frame of 
the door are painted in chiaroscuro, with the shadows 
so clearly accented that they give the impression of 
real architecture, built with wood or stucco. 





PLATE 405. PAINTED ARCHITECTURAL DECORATION IN THE VILLA LA MASSA, BAGNI A RIPOLI 


The columns, landscape perspectives, frieze, and lunettes are all created with a brush instead of being built in relief 
Courtesy of H. D. Eberlein 





PLATE 406. CASA DE PILATOS, SEVILLE 


In this room the panel mouldings, door-frame, and pediment are painted in chiaroscuro 
Courtesy of William Lawrence Bottomley 


FRESCOED AND PAINTED WALLS 73 


Pure fresco work was not wholly discontinued be- 
cause of the discovery of oil paint. It still held a place 
side by side with decorations done in the new medium. 
Perhaps the most monumental of the frescoes of this 
epoch are those of the Sistine Chapel, where Raphael and 
Michelangelo have left the imprint of their powerful im- 
aginations and the record of their mastery of the brush. 

The best frescoes of the Renaissance were distin- 
guished for their symbolic expression of the spirit of 
the subject, for their restfulness and dignity of form, 
and for their beauty and colour. 

Some notable mural paintings and frescoes date 
from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, when 
Titian and Veronese spread impressive panoramas 
over the walls. In the dining-hall of the Villa Giaco- 
melli is a great fresco by the master, Veronese. A 
balustrade runs around the sides of the room, over 
which painted people in costumes of the day, with par- 
rots, monkeys, and dogs, look down on what goes on 
below them. Over the entrance door is a splendid ban- 
quet scene. Several of the bedrooms in this villa are 
painted with architectural schemes. | 

Painted decorations of this era were sometimes 
placed above panelled dadoes of wood or marble, to 
raise them higher than the furniture in the room, and 
were often arranged in large panels, flanked by deco- 
rative pilasters. In small rooms, painted canvases 
were panelled into the walls, with frames of delicately 
modelled and gilded stucco. 

The eighteenth century in Italy found many charm- 
ing inspirations in the old painted Pompeian wall 


74 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


decorations, which were well adapted to small rooms, 
Paesaggt (landscapes) and graceful amorin (cupids) 
were also favourite subjects, but were used preferably 
in small panels rather than in large, all-over decora- 
tions. As in France, painted overdoor and over- 
mirror decorations became objects of importance at 
this period. 
ENGLAND 

Decorative painting was encouraged in England at 
a very early date, for the embellishment of churches. 
During the Saxon period, Wilfrid, Bishop of York, had 
the walls, the capitals of columns, and the sacrarium 
arch of his church painted with stories and images. 

But while Italy, during the Renaissance, developed 
fresco-painting as a domestic mural decoration, Eng- 
land clung to walls panelled with oak wainscots, or to 
plaster walls decorated with lines or simple patterns. 
Wood-panelling, which is insect-breeding in southern 
countries, always remained a favourite wall covering 
in cooler countries, as much for its warmth as for its 
decorative effect. Although mural paintings were ab- 
sent, these wainscoted English rooms did not lack for 
colour. The plaster friezes in relief above the wood 
were often polychrome or gilt, and the tapestries and 
needlework used for hangings contributed warmth and 
geniality to what might otherwise have been an au- 
stere background. 

Wall-paintings were most in favour in England dur- 
ing the Baroque seventeenth century. We have an 
amusing description from Horace Walpole’s pen of 
Chatsworth House, in which he says: ‘‘The heathen 


FRESCOED AND PAINTED WALLS 15 


gods, goddesses, Christian virtues, and allegoric 
gentlefolks are crowded into every room, as if Mrs. 
Holman had been to Heaven and invited everybody 
she saw.’’ 

By the middle of the eighteenth century, the fashion 
of great wall-paintings had fallen into disuse, and 
stucco stood as the most popular wall decoration. The 
prevalent desire was for small pictures in ornamental 
stucco frames, rather than for paintings of large ex- 
panse. The Adam brothers in their schemes of inte- 
rior decoration were kept busy adapting the paintings 
which their clients already owned to this form of ar- 
rangement, or in ordering others painted by the artists 
of the day to fit the spaces designed for them. 

Occasionally grisaille paintings are found on a 
ground of grey or of colour to imitate relief. In effect 
they are much like the grisailles of Sauvage in the 
Palace of Compiégne (see plate 407). 

Panels of painted arabesques were also used as 
alternatives to the small inset wall-paintings. When 
employed they were framed in stucco, richly coloured 
and gilded. 

The most important of the decorative wall-paint- 
ings of this time were done by Angelica Kauffmann, by 
her Italian husband, Antonio Zucchi, and by Pergolesi. 


FRANCE 


Fresco work made its appearance in France as a 
church decoration in the twelfth century, but the ex- 
tensive practice of the art as a domestic decoration is 
due to Francois Premier, who imported the Italian 


76 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


artists Primaticcio and Master Roux de Roux, known 
as Le Rosso, to beautify his palace at Fontainebleau. 

Both of these Italians were painters of the highest 
merit. In their own country they had studied the 
frescoes of Giotto and Botticelli, of Benozzo Gozzoli, 
of Leonardo da Vinci, of Michelangelo and Raphael, 
and these works had been their inspiration and their 
guide. The splendid decorations accomplished under 
their direction at Fontainebleau still remain objects 
of admiration. 

Fontainebleau was not the only building in France to 
be painted with beautiful frescoes during this century. 
Other public buildings, the residences of the nobles, 
and even some simple dwellings, received this sort of 
decoration. The ‘‘house of Hercules,’’ in Paris, had 
the twelve tasks of the hero pictured on its facade. The 
interiors of the Mazarin Palace and the Library of the 
Jesuits were also covered with important frescoes. 

In the time of Louis XIV, many of the young French 
painters who had been studying the ornamental deco- 
rations of Italy returned to France to develop their new 
ideas in individual fashions, and a host of splendid 
ceilings and wall decorations were executed. 

Charles Le Brun painted the Gallery of Hercules 
in the Hotel Lambert, and became famous for magnifi- 
cent ceilings. Jean Berain, who was employed under 
Le Brun, carried out a lighter and freer form of wall 
decoration. His designs of painted arabesques are 
more like those of Gobelin borders, spread with deli- 
cate fantasy in panels over the field of the wall 
(plate 408). 


FRESCOED AND PAINTED WALLS U7 


With its splendid and pompous boiseries, abun- 
dantly carved and gilded, which often covered the 
rooms of this period, its painted ceilings and wall- 
panels, its wall-sheathings of marble veneers, and its 
gorgeous tapestries and damasks, the age of Louis 
XIV was one of the greatest magnificence in decorative 
wall-treatments. The important mirrors used in the 
decoration of rooms doubled and redoubled these 
splendours. 

It was at this time that Blondel the elder demanded 
that a man should be not only a good architect, but also 
a good decorator. The real purpose of the founding 
of the Academy, to him, lay in the fact that architecture 
would be protected from profanation by bad ornament. 

The age of Louis XV carried on the various systems 
of wall decoration that had been in vogue in the pre- 
ceding age, but with a lighter and more graceful touch. 
Watteau, Boucher, Fragonard, Huet, and Pillement 
painted charming pastoral canvases that were set into 
wall-panels and overdoors, giving a room great beauty 
and distinction. Chinoiserve and singerie were used 
as a means of expression to satirize all the foibles of 
the day. The singeries of the Imprimerie Nationale 
are illustrated in example of this mode of decoration 
(plate 409). 

Wood-panelling itself was often painted by the 
noted decorative artists of the day. Precious varnishes 
eave to these paintings on wood the aspect of real lac- 
quers, augmenting their brilliancy. A pleasant anec- 
dote is related about the house of Maréchal Richelieu. 
‘‘Yesterday Monsieur de Richelieu gave a great 


78 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


supper-party in his little house. Everything there is 
decorated with the most gallant obscenity. The wood- 
panelling especially, in the middle of each panel, has 
figures in bas-relief which are most immodest. The 
event of the beginning of the supper-party was to see 
the old Duchess of Brancas, who wanted to inspect 
these figures, put on her glasses, and with her mouth 
pinched together regard them coldly, while M. de Riche- 
lieu held the candle for her and explained them.’’ 

These objectionable decorations marked the begin- 
ning of the end of beautiful panelling. Already wall- 
paper had commenced to invade walls in imitation of 
stuffs and of the favourite Chinese designs, and bro- 
eades and printed materials with Louis XV motifs 
became great favourites for wall coverings. 

The taste for the classic commenced to rule in 
France, the keynote being given by Gabriel. These 
tendencies burst into full expression in the reign of 
Louis XVI. The flowing curves of the Rococo straight- 
ened themselves out into simple lines, with severe, 
well-balanced formulas. Much the same decorative 
processes were employed as under Louis XV, charac- 
terized by the new ideas in design that went with the 
new mental development. Wood-panelled walls, painted 
arabesques (plate 412), stucco ornamentation, and 
walls covered flat with fabrics and wall-paper—all were 
marked by restrained classicism. Interest was obtained 
by perfect proportion, by free play of fancy in the 
adaptation of designs, by colour and gilt, and by that 
refinement which is the mark of the greatest elegance. 

Under the Directoire, these developments were car- 


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PLATE 412, LOUIS XVI BOISERIE, WITH PAINTED ARABESQUES 


Musée des Arts Decoratifs, Paris 


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FRESCOED AND PAINTED WALLS 79 


ried to still further extremes. The painted mural deco- 
rations to be especially noted in this period are the 
Pompeian wall-panels and the doors painted with 
motifs of the same provenance. 


Empire walls were for the most part plain flat sur- 
faces, often covered with strained fabrics above the 
dado. Little decorative wall-painting was encouraged 
in this era. The great series of wall-paper known as 
scenic papers took the place of painted walls when 
narrative panoramas were required. A few painted 
decorations are found, such as that of Lafitte in the 
dining-hall at Malmaison (plate 411), and the painted 
bathroom of Josephine in the same palace. For the 
most part, however, Empire mural decorations con- 
sisted of movable pictures, like the great canvases of 
David, large mirrors, or wall-brackets or consoles, 
designed to hold priceless vases and bibelots. 


SPAIN 


The frieze and the dado were the two parts of the 
wall in domestic interiors where Spanish painters lav- 
ished their skill (see plate 413). When the dado was 
high, it counted as an important ornament; when it was 
low (plate 413), it often disappeared behind furniture. 

These painted dadoes and friezes were rarely used 
on simple plaster walls. When they were combined with 
a wall surface of brocade or shaggy velvet, or embroid- 
ered hangings, the effect was found to be richer and 
more sumptuous. I have seen an interesting use of a 
painted frieze with inset mirrors in a Spanish room. 


80 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


The painted ceiling added in the eighteenth century to 
a Gothic loggia is worthy of note (plate 414). 


AMERICA 


Our earliest Colonial houses, for the most part, had 
whitewashed or kalsomined walls. The first attempt at 
mural decoration came with the use of stencilled bor- 
ders, in simple designs and pleasing colours. This was 
a home-made embellishment, done by different mem- 
bers of the family, who worked in leisure moments to 
beautify their rooms. Occasionally these borders are 
still found in old houses, the field of the wall being in 
white or in colour. The simplest treatment was to run 
the stencil design around the top of the wall like a 
frieze. In more elaborate rooms, a narrower border 
headed the chair-rail and sometimes outlined door and 
window openings or marked the intersecting corners 
of walls. 

These early beginnings of artistic expression were 
followed by what are known as ‘‘ American frescoes,”’ 
wall-paintings usually done by journeymen artists, who 
travelled about the country on horseback and paid for 
their board and lodging by decorating the dwellings 
where they were received as guests. Their paintings 
were largely naive landscapes, with many trees, much 
water and sky, and occasionally birds, flowers, and pic- 
ture subjects, rather stiffly treated, but interesting and 
effective on the whole. A ‘‘painted chamber’’ of this 
sort exists in Quilleote, the home of Kate Douglas 
Wiggin, and there are others in many New England 
houses. It is unfortunate that so large a proportion of 


a 





PLATE 415. EARLY AMERICAN FRESCOED WALL IN THE HOUSE OF 
WALTER P. MAGEE, LYME, CONNECTICUT 
Courtesy of Country Life 


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FRESCOED AND PAINTED WALLS 81 


early ‘‘fresco’’ work in this country has been de- 
stroyed, either by architectural changes, or by being 
covered over with wall-paper at a subsequent. date. 
Kidward B. Allen has made a special study of this sub- 
ject, and in the book which he is now preparing on 
‘‘Harly American Frescoes’’ * will be found numerous 
illustrations of this period. 

Artists from abroad who came to this country dur- 
ing the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century 
have left some characteristic mural decorations in 
widely scattered districts. In the house of John deK. 
Alsop, in Middletown, Connecticut, is a room which 
was painted by an Italian about 1838. The house is 
a delightful example of the Durectoire period, and 
the Pompeian decorations of a later date suit its 
character exactly. 

The panelled room from Marmion, Prince George 
County, Virginia, which is in the new wing of the 
Metropolitan Museum, is another example of American 
painted decoration. The painting is done on the wooden 
panelling, and is crude in execution and low in tone. 
There are landscapes and vases of flowers, which reflect 
the French and Italian decorations of the eighteenth 
century. The marbleizing of the woodwork is again a 
direct influence from abroad. 

The Clark-Frankland house of Boston, torn down 
in 1833, contained a large series of painted wood panels, 
which are supposed to have been done in England for 
their places in the room. 

The fine old house of Walter F'. Magee, in Lyme, 


®'Yale University Press. 


82 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


Connecticut, has frescoed decorations which date from 
the early days of the Republic (plate 415). Illustra- 
tions are also given here of two houses in Washington, 
Connecticut, within two miles of each other, whose walls 
were painted about 1800, apparently by the same local 
artist, whose name unfortunately has not survived 
(plates 416 and 417). 

Some one has said that simplicity is the American 
idea of ceremony. This is perhaps the reason why 
comparatively few important mural decorations re- 
sembling: those on the other side of the water are found 
in this country in the early stages of its development. 


PART IT 


WHERE FRESCOED OR PAINTED 
DECORATIONS BELONG IN OUR HOMES 


mental in character is a false one that is wide- 

spread. On the contrary, scarcely any other 
treatment, except that of wood-panelling or wall-paper, 
is better suited to small rooms, if the design is kept in 
scale and the colour and atmosphere are suitable. As 
a direct proof of this, we have only to examine the little 
rooms of Pompeii and the exquisite bottes like the 
painted bathroom of Marie Antoinette, now at Fon- 
tainebleau, or the flower room in the same palace, which 
has furnished Walter Gay with inspiration for a de- 
lightful picture. Certain of the illustrations in this 
chapter will further establish the fact. 

Many small rooms, like halls, dressing-rooms, 
breakfast-rooms, bathrooms, and boudoirs, may be 
given special interest by having the entire wall surface 
covered with decorative paintings. 

It seems to us that greater liberties can be taken 
with little ‘‘occasional’’ rooms of this sort than with 
rooms that are in constant use as living-rooms. The 
downstairs dressing-room, or telephone-closet, for ex- 
ample, is usually shut off from other parts of the house, 
and there is delight and charm in opening the door and 
suddenly finding one’s self in a different world of colour 

6 83 


[= idea that a painted decoration must be monu- 


84 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


and design that bears no relation whatever to the rooms 
outside. Daring things may be done here, if desired. 
They will not grow tiresome nor monotonous, because 
one leaves them so shortly to return to the sober sur- 
roundings of other rooms. Such treatments can be the 
sauce piquante of the house. They will be a delight in 
themselves, and by contrast they enhance the rooms 
‘that lead up to them. 

Often the paintings for such places are done di- 
rectly on the wall surface. If it is desired to preserve 
them for possible removal to other locations, they 
should be done on canvas, which may either be applied 
to the wall by mouldings, or white-leaded to keep it 
in place. 

An effective small dressing-room of this type is 
shown in plate 418. It was created by Victor White 
for the residence of Mr. Charles Mitchell at Tuxedo, 
New York. The walls were first canvassed and then 
covered with silver paper, on which the artist painted 
Persian designs in brilliant colours. In this way he 
has obtained the vibration of colour on silver, with 
all the interest that comes from the graphic repre- 
sentation of incidents in Oriental life. The baseboard 
and trim in this little room are bright green. The ceil- 
ing has been covered with silver paper and painted to 
bring it into key with the walls. 

In the residence of Carl Tucker at Mt. Kisco, Victor 
White has constructed another dressing-room of the 
same general type, although still greater interest has 
been obtained here by suggesting the form of a tent. 
(See plate 419.) This is done by the treatment of the 





PLATE 418. PAINTED DRESSING-ROOM IN THE RESIDENCE OF MRS. CHARLES 
MITCHELL, TUXEDO. DECORATIONS BY VICTOR WHITE 


Persian designs, painted in brilliant colours on silver paper 


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Photograph by Mattie Edwards Hewitt 
PLATE 420. PAINTED BOUDOIR IN THE RESIDENCE OF MRS. E. S. BAYER, NEW YORK 
DECORATIONS BY EVERETT SHINN 
The draperies at the head of each panel are repeated in shape and colour by the taffeta window-curtains 


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FRESCOED AND PAINTED WALLS 85 


ceiling and by a raised plaster frieze with edges shaped 
like a valance, which has a line of emerald green, and 
red tassels depending between the scallops. The 
painted bamboo railing is lacquer-red; on the silver 
walls above it are fantastic sailing ships and birds, 
and trees in red, orange, and purple that suggest old 
Chinese embroideries. The silvery grey doors, whose 
general tone harmonizes with the silver paper walls, 
have panels raised with gesso, and are painted with 
blue-green and lacquer-red stripes. The dragons in 
relief on the large door-panels are gilded. To complete 
the room, the tent-shaped ceiling is glazed a rich gold 
colour, and the furniture is lacquer-red. 

Such imaginative schemes are fresh and interesting 
and leave a vivid impression of something different 
from the ordinary. The treatment is eminently suited 
to the size and use of the room; it would perhaps be 
less effective on larger and more spacious surfaces. 

Entirely different from this modern note is the 
painted Louis XVI decoration done by Everett Shinn 
for the boudoir of Mrs. EK. KE. Bayer of New York. 
Here we have the pastoral scenes, the blue ribbons, the 
musical trophies, and the soft colourings that make a 
classically feminine and seductive background (plate 
420). The controlling tone of this small room, which is 
an irregular octagon, is old French blue. At the head 
of each panel is a painted drapery in this delicate 
colour, and the window-curtains of blue taffeta repeat 
the same idea. Interest is given to the walls by the 
arrangement of large and small panels above a pan- 
elled and painted dado. The doors are in character 


86 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


with the rest of the room, and are properly continued 
to the cornice by the overdoor paintings. The height 
of the room has been diminished by the use of a series 
of small panels under the cornice, which form a sort 
of frieze. This room is a good example of the adapta- 
tion of a painted wall decoration in period style to the 
architecture of a modern room. 

A painted Chinoiserie room in the old W. K. 
Vanderbilt home at Jericho, Long Island (plate 421), is 
another admirable architectural use of mural decora- 
tion in a small space. 

Interesting, too, is the bathroom of the Duchesse 
d’Albe in Paris, which has recently been painted by 
Rateau in modern style (plate 422). 


THE PLAN OF A PAINTED ROOM 


No definite rules can be given for the decorative 
painting of the walls of a room. The matter depends 
wholly upon the architecture and upon the painter’s 
knowledge and inspiration. 

If the owner of the house has an inkling of the 
general type of decoration with which he desires to 
live, he will select an artist whose work appeals to him 
as suitable in character, and this artist, after making 
a careful study of the architectural conditions of the 
room, will first submit small sketches in colour for 
approval. Later, these miniature sketches will be 
made full size before the execution of the work is 
begun. It is always advisable to have a maquette, or 
small model of the room, made to scale, showing the 
decoration in place on the walls, with the indication of 


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PLATE 423, EARLY ITALIAN FRESCO IN THE VILLA OF LIVIA IN ROME 
The wall looks like a garden, with hedges and bordered paths 


FRESCOED AND PAINTED WALLS 87 


cornice, door-trims, and mouldings that may be neces- 
sary to the scheme. The experienced artist is able to 
see the completed room in his mind’s eye, but the 
layman is not always capable of visualizing it, and 
disappointments and surprises will be avoided by 
taking this simple precaution of making a scale-model 
in colour. 

In general, it may be noted here that painting as 
applied to architecture can be used in two ways. It is 
either subjected to the laws and form of the structure, 
or it is independent of them, extending freely over 
walls, ceilings, pillars, and mouldings. Used in the 
first manner, it is an essential part of architecture; 
used in the second fashion, it becomes a decoration 
which has its own peculiar laws, and often destroys the 
architectonic effect, substituting something which be- 
longs wholly to the painter’s art. Decorative paintings 
of the latter class usually group themselves into 
panels, which demand framing, or else develop into 
processions between two horizontal lines. 

Viollet-le-Duc laid down the following basic rules 
for the painting of architecture: 

1. In the decoration of walls, flatness and solidity must 
be recognized. 

2. Walls that rise from the floor may be divided into 
two or more horizontal spaces, each of which may 
be differently treated. 

3. That nearest the floor (the dado) should be kept 
solid and quiet in design. If it is plain in colour, 
it may be finished on the upper edge with one or 
more bands of colour. 


88 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


4, Considerably more freedom may be allowed in the 
decoration of the upper parts of the walls. 
5. In elaborate schemes of decoration the mouldings of 
all arches should be entirely or partially coloured. 
The use of the dado to raise the decoration on the 
field of the wall above the height of the furniture is in 
all cases of furnished rooms a desirable plan. Rooms 
like hallways, with little or no furniture, may have the 
decoration extending to the floor, as in the case of the 
beautiful old frescoes in the Villa of Livia, just out- 
side of Rome (plate 423). 


THE PAINTED BREAKFAST-ROOM 


In houses done in the Italian manner, which are 
found in various parts of this country to-day, fresco- 
painting seems to be the decorative method par eacel- 
lence to be followed in vaulted breakfast-rooms, which 
are usually not large in scale, but which call for some 
treatment that differs by its gaiety and verve from the 
more formal dining-room. 

A modern example of a frescoed breakfast-room is 
illustrated here, done by Gardner Hale, who is notable 
among artists of to-day for having followed the old 
Italian methods of fresco-painting in every detail as 
to preparation of colours and method. 

This room (plate 424) is in the house of J. F. 
Carlisle at Islip, Long Island. It is like a mille fleurs 
tapestry spread on the wall with scenes of a medieval 
hunt, the huntsmen and the animals coursing through 
the forest, while a conventional stream of water flows 











PLATE 425. PAINTED STAIR-HALL IN THE HOUSE OF MRS. WILLIAM K. VANDERBILT 
SUTTON PLACE, NEW YORK. DECORATION BY ALLYN COX 


The niche and the Chinese figure are painted to give the effect of architectural construction 








FRESCOED AND PAINTED WALLS 89 


among the trees and forms the foreground of the 
picture. The vaulted ceiling is in rough, sand- 
coloured plaster. 


THE PAINTED HALL 


Often it will be found enlivening and cheerful to 
decorate the halls of houses or apartments with mural 
paintings. When a series of rooms with plain walls 
opens into the hall, there is need of such decoration for 
the sake of vista and variety, and many interesting 
treatments are possible. 

Take for example the painted decoration by Allyn 
Cox in the stair hall of Mrs. William K. Vanderbilt 
on Sutton Place (plate 425). The niche and the 
Chinese figure are painted, as well as the Oriental all- 
over design. Breaking into a wall for the construction 
of niches is sometimes attended with considerable diffi- 
culties, and it is pleasant to know that the surface may 
be left unbroken, while at the same time the desired 
effect may be obtained by simili-architecture, done 
with paint. 

The hall of EK. O. Holter, at Mt. Kisco, New York, 
is an example of a different form of pictorial treat- 
ment. The painting, done by Barry Faulkner, repre- 
sents scenes from The Tempest, which cover the walls 
and run up to the staircase landing in interesting com- 
positions. Hach panel is designed for the space it 
occupies (plate 426). It was to take the place of 
artistic decorations of this sort that scenic wall-papers 
originally came into existence. 


90 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


THE DINING-ROOM WITH DECORATED WALLS 

Where all other rooms in a house have plain walls, 
the dining-room will usually be the room selected for 
a mural decoration. It lends itself admirably to such 
treatment, since there are usually few high pieces of 
furniture in its equipment. While a great expanse of 
plain wall does not make a friendly or hospitable room, 
painted decorations or scenic papers at once people the 
place with colour and interest, so that on entering one 
has the sense of a waiting‘ welcome which has been pre- 
pared beforehand, and, on leaving the table, there is 
not the usual feeling of quitting a room that will be 
deserted and lonely until the next meal. 

No matter how formal or how informal, there is 
always a possible painted mural treatment for a 
dining-room. 

In the house of Mrs. Monroe Robinson on Long 
Island, Caro Delvaille has brought all the farm animals 
into the dining-room. From the black cat that stalks 
over the mantel-piece to the geese and the ducks and 
the turkey-gobbler, they are all there on the walls, in 
a composition that is wonderfully decorative and 
colourful. Fine as the background is, it is essentially 
simple and country-like in feeling, and Windsor chairs 
and other pieces of early American furniture are suit- 
ably used in the room (plate 427). 

Another quasi-informal dining-room is that painted 
by Barry Faulkner for Richard Dana, architect. The 
continuous wall design is a landscape of gentle hills 
and wooded roads in cool, soft tones, which give space 
and perspective to the room. With this setting, a long 


Be ees 


PLATE 426, 


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3 FROM “THE TEMPEST,” IN THE HALLWAY OF E. 0. HOLTER, MT, KISCO, NEW YORK 
DECORATION BY BARRY FAULKNER 


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PLATE 428. PAINTED DINING-ROOM WALL IN THE APARTMENT OF RICHARD H. DANA, JR., ARCHITECT 
DECORATION BY BARRY FAULKNER 
The landscape represents the hills and roads of Washington, Connecticut, surrounding Mr. Dana’s country place 





PLATE 429. BALLROOM IN THE HOUSE OF SIR PHILIP SASSOON, LONDON. DECORATED BY SERT 
The painted velvet curtains hanging from the sky form sumptuous frames for the panels 


FRESCOED AND PAINTED WALLS 91 


Itahan refectory table and Italian chairs are used 
(plate 428). 


We might continue to cite numerous examples of 
the decorated dining-room, and each example would 
be absolutely different and individual in character. 
But perhaps enough has been said to suggest what an 
unlimited variety is possible. Let us turn to the con- 
sideration of other rooms of a house that may suitably 
receive a mural decoration. 


BALLROOMS AND MUSIC-ROOMS 


As we have already implied in speaking of dining- 
rooms and halls, the room that has few pieces of furni- 
ture is preéminently the room to be decorated with 
wall paintings. For the ballroom and the music-room, 
then, we need search no further for a suitable embel- 
lishment. As a usual case, such rooms are imposing in 
height and length, and unless something beautiful is 
done to the walls, they are mere empty shells. 


Perhaps the most beautiful painted ballroom in 
this country is that of Mrs. Joshua S. Cosden in Palm 
Beach, containing the magnificent panels by Sert, 
which illustrate the story of Sinbad the Sailor. Like 
many Chinese paintings, these sepia panels are done 
on a gold background, which is almost wholly covered, 
but which gleams through occasionally, enough to 
make one realize that it is there. Each panel is 
framed in an arrangement of painted draperies of 
crimson velvet, voluptuous in colour and splendid in 
their great folds. Sert has surpassed himself in 
this decoration. 


92 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


It is regrettable that the room is not yet in condi- 
tion to be photographed, as it is awaiting the comple- 
tion of another panel. We are showing here, however, 
another ballroom, painted by the same artist for Sir 
Philip Sassoon of London, (Plate 429.) 

What can be added to a music-room by a good wall 
treatment may be seen in the illustration of Mrs. 
Alfred 8. Rossin’s salon, painted in the spirit of the 
Italian Renaissance by Claggett Wilson (plate 430). 
A particularly successful effect has been obtained in 
this decoration by modelling the plaster walls slightly 
by hand before decorating them. The texture is thus 
a little different from that of an absolutely flat sur- 
face. The paintings are very high and clear in key, and 
delicate in effect. They represent the allegories of 
song, of dance, of poetry, and of music. The lightness 
of the painted columns is in harmony with the con- 
struction of the room; an ornamental dado, painted to 
represent tiles, and an arcaded frieze suitably com- 
plete the composition. 


In a model for a painted ballroom by Clara Fargo 
Thomas, the large circular room is surrounded with a 
painted balustrade and simple columns supporting a 
heavy cornice, from which springs the domed ceiling. 
Between each pair of columns is the perspective of a 
long allée bordered by hedges, or covered with trellised 
arbors, which seems to invite the dancers to stroll out 
into cool green depths when the music ceases. The ceil- 
ing is a blue sky with clouds, and the polished floor is 
formed of concentric circles of different coloured 
woods. The lights are concealed behind the cornice, 


sec OOM 


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PLATE 430. PAINTED MUSIC—~ROOM IN THE HOUSE OF MRS. ALFRED S. ROSSIN, NEW YORK 
DECORATIONS BY CLAGGETT WILSON, IN THE SPIRIT OF THE ITALIAN RENAISSANCE 


Allegory of the Dance (right). Allegory of Song (left) 


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FRESCOED AND PAINTED WALLS 93 


so that all the illumination comes from the top of the 
room in a moonlight effect. 


THE PAINTED LIBRARY 


Books are in themselves so colourful and so thor- 
oughly decorative in value that the library is not often 
considered in planning a decorated wall. Yet in many 
home libraries the bookshelves, in order to be easily 
accessible, do not reach the ceiling and a space is left 
above them which seems doubly bare by reason of con- 
trast with rich bindings. Hanging separate pictures 
in this space is apt to produce an unpleasant effect of 
spottiness, which will not exist when it is covered with 
a continuous painted frieze. 

In the Villa Razzolini in Florence, now owned by Mr. 
T. H. Spelman, space was left for a decoration of this 
sort when the villa was built in the quattrocento. The 
decoration, however, was never ordered until three years 
ago, when Gardner Hale was commissioned to paint it. 
The frescoes which he designed and executed for this 
room represent the life of St. Julien. They are rich in 
colour and brilliant with gold. The illustration in plate 
431 shows what they have added to the room. 


In plate 432 may be seen a model for a sporting 
library that is to be carried out in a New York house 
by Clara Fargo Thomas. It is a large octagonal room, 
wholly panelled in walnut. The bookcases are built 
into the walls, so that the bindings are flush with the 
wall surface. It is on the dado panels, the frieze above 
the bookcases, the wooden ceiling, and the doors that 
the decorations are to be painted. All the fishing books 


94 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


are in one section, and the decorations here are pisca- 
torial scenes. The books on fox-hunting have a section 
to themselves, and are surrounded with hunting scenes. 
Golf and tennis and polo books, with their accompany- 
ing trophies, have a Bee too, in this mie which 
will be dear to a man’s heart. 

Wood-panelling is the perfect setting for a library, 
but if this is not available, the combination of book- 
cases and a painted decoration will create an atmos- 
phere that seems wholly desirable and wholly suitable 
to the room devoted to books. 


THE PAINTED DRAWING-ROOM OR LIVING-ROOM 


Hundreds of examples might be shown of the ways 
in which wall-paintings have been used as a decoration 
for drawing-rooms and living-rooms. We must be con- 
tent with illustrating only a few, which may perhaps 
be suggestive. 

From the Villa La Massa, at Bagni a Ripoli, we 
have already shown an antique salon, done wholly with 
simili-architecture (plate 405) and from the Villa 
Giacomelli at Maser, a fine architectural wall-painting 
by Veronese (plate 404). 

It is extraordinary that we in America have not 
borrowed more freely this idea of painted architecture, 
which is a convincing and an uncostly fashion of ob- 
taining architectural effects. In its simplest form it 
could be used to simulate mouldings and door-frames, 
as in the Spanish interior in plate 405. From this 
beginning, it is capable of being expanded to any 
degree of elaborateness. 


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FRESCOED AND PAINTED WALLS 95 


In a room recently decorated by Elsie de Wolfe for 
Mr. Condé Nast, this idea of painted panel mouldings 
has been simply and effectively carried out in grisaille. 
Nothing is in relief, yet the effect is there, and to har- 
monize with the general tone of coolness and restraint, 
large grisaille paintings are hung in the panels. 

A suggestion for the adaptation of painted archi- 
tecture is also found in the drawing-room of Mrs. 
Wm. T. Carrington, of New York, recently completed 
by Paul Chalfin. The actual arch of the doorway has 
been arranged as a composite part of the picture. 
_ (Plate 433.) 

Good painted architecture has a place of its own in 
interior decoration. Well-designed cornices and pi- 
lasters, door-heads and mouldings, dadoes and over- 
doors, painted on the wall, are quite as important to 
the general architectural scheme as if they were made 
of plaster or stone. There is no intent to deceive in 
such painting, merely the desire to give pleasure to 
the eye by creating something that fitly completes the 
architectural effect. If this can be done as effectively 
with paints and brushes as with building materials, 
why should it not be done oftener? 

A modern example of the painted drawing-room 
may be seen in the house of Preston Davey at Tuxedo. 
The room is a French room with rounded corners, 
painted gray. For it, Victor White has designed and 
painted canvas panels with Chinoiserie subjects on a 
background of apple-green. They are done in clear 
colours of vermilion, green, and yellow, like eighteenth 
century subjects (plate 484). 


96 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


An interesting decoration for a Florida house 
(plate 435), done by Robert E. Locher for the resi- 
dence of Robert Handley at New Smyrna, illustrates 
the colonization of Florida by different nationalities. 
Each wall shows a ship from some foreign land touch- 
ing at a Florida port for the first time. ! 


THE PAINTED OFFICE 


Still another room, which does not belong strictly 
in the class of domestic interiors, but which is well 
worthy of having a painted wall, is a man’s office. For 
this sort of room, maps are both interesting and suit- 
able. As an excellent illustration of this point, study 
Mr. James Brown’s office with its wall decorations 
(plate 436). 

The decorative qualities of maps are a compara- 
tively recent appreciation here, although the old map- 
room in the Vatican has stood for centuries as a proof 
of the fact. For halls and staircases nothing is more 
delightful, particularly when the paintings contain 
those cartouches and designs extraneous to actual 
geography which add much to general decorative effect. 

The maps of Long Island and Bermuda, painted by 
Barry Faulkner for the residence of Mrs. Meredith 
Hare, are illustrative of a pleasant hall decoration of 
this sort (plate 437). 


THE INDOOR SWIMMING-POOL 
Here again a mural decoration of some sort is 
desirable. The choice exists between making the pool . 
a gay and lively place with a painted wall, or having a 





PLATE 435. PAINTED DECORATION BY ROBERT E. LOCHER, FOR THE LIVING—-ROOM OF ROBERT HANDLEY 
NEW SMYRNA, FLORIDA 
The texture and grain of the cypress-wood ceiling and beams adds much to the decorative effect 


anrey, 





PLATE 436. OFFICE OF MR. JAMES BROWN, NEW YORK. THE DECORATION OF MAPS 
BY MR. GREY 





PLATE 437. MAP OF LONG ISLAND, PAINTED BY BARRY FAULKNER 
Staircase hall in the residence of Mrs. Meredith Hare, Pigeon Hill, Long Island 


FRESCOED AND PAINTED WALLS 97 


chilling background of marble or stone. Many in- 
door swimming-pools to-day are decorated in the 
former manner. 

That of Mrs. George Blumenthal, which was painted 
by Paulet Thevenaz, gives the effect of being below 
the sea, as soon as one enters the room. Sunken ships 
are there to tell of unguessed tragedies; mermen and 
mermaids sport among these wrecks and coral reefs, 
garlanded with pearls and spoils of the deep. Strange 
fishes and monsters and sea-gardens of floating plants 
are pictured in the green waters on the walls. 

The swimming-pool which Robert Chanler deco- 
rated for Mr. James Deering in Florida is another 
under-sea scene. All the characteristic aquatic ani- 
mals of the Florida waters were caught and brought to 
the artist to be transferred to canvas by the vivid 
strokes of his brush. 


THE PAINTED CEILING 


While most houses or apartments are improved by 
at least one painted room, not all of them can accommo- 
date the painted ceiling. This is largely due to the 
height and the construction of rooms in modern build- 
ings. Seldom is the lofty vaulted ceiling of the fif- 
teenth century found to-day, or the very high panelled 
wall of the middle of the eighteenth. And a decorated 
ceiling is apt to sit down on the top of one’s head 
unless it is given altitude. 

There are occasions, however, where the architect 
has planned a room that permits of a painted ceiling 
decoration. The panelled dining-room of R. M. Catts 


98 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


in New York is constructed with a deep cove, which 
lends itself admirably to the decoration painted by 
Arthur Crisp. As a warm contrast to the wood of the 
walls, the ground of the ceiling is lacquer-red. Against 
it the designs are painted in Persian colours—old gold, 
blue, and antique white. Each of the four sides of the 
cove depicts a different method of procuring food. 
On one side is a hunting scene; on another an agricul- 
tural group; the third shows a fishing scene; and a 
fourth the vintage. The centre of the ceiling has a 
flowing design reminiscent of a Persian rug. Between 
this and the corner designs, the field is sown with 
scattered conventional flowers and leaves (plate 438). 
For a study of old-time Italian painted ceilings, 
the reader is referred to the illustrations in plates 
202, 211, 212, 400, 401, 405, 408, and 610, which show 
how vaulted and flat ceilings were treated with poly- 
chrome designs, lunettes, and decorated corbels., 





PLATE 438. PAINTED CEILING IN THE DINING—ROOM OF R. M. CATTS, NEW YORK. DECORATION BY ARTHUR CRISP 


The ground is lacquer red, painted with Persian designs in old gold, blue, and antique white. Each of the four sides of the cove depicts a 
different method of procuring food 


CHAPTER V 
STUCCO AND PLASTER ORNAMENTATION 








PLATE IV. DINING-ROOM IN VILLA LAZZARA-PISANI, AT STRA, ITALY 
With colored stucco decorations in relief 





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CHAPTER V 
STUCCO AND PLASTER ORNAMENTATION 
PART I 


ORE than five centuries before Christ, the 
Mee of fine white stucco had reached perfec- 

tion in Greece. It was employed both on the 
exterior and the interior of buildings, even when the 
building was of marble. The fact that it formed an 
excellent ground for decorative painting was one of 
the points in its favour, for decorative painting had 
reached a high degree of beauty at this time. 

Later, the Romans used stucco for making statues 
and ornaments and even furniture of various sorts, 
as well as employing it for low reliefs on walls. 

The composition of this stucco of the ancients 
seems to have been a matter of great skill. The base 
was always carbonate of lime, but mixed with it were 
materials that were various and strange, including 
anything that would give strength and regulate the 
setting qualities of the medium, in order to allow time 
for modelling while it was still plastic. Fig juice, 
white of eggs, melted wax, curdled milk, hogs’ lard, 
barley water, and bullock’s blood, saccharine and rice 
gluten are mentioned as advisable admixtures. 

Vitruvius records that the fine Roman stucco was 
applied in many different coats. He speaks of three 
coats mixed with sand and three coats mixed with 

101 


102 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


marble dust. When finished and polished, this stueco 
was mirror-like, and reflected brilliantly the images 
falling upon it. Slabs taken from walls were in great 
demand to use as table-tops because of the beauty of 
the material. 

When the Baths of Titus were excavated at San 
Piero, around 1488, Raphael and his pupil, Giovanni 
da Udine, were taken to see them, and Vasari tells us 
that Raphael was ‘‘seized with astonishment’’ at the 
beauty and freshness of the decoration in some of the 
subterranean chambers. Here the walls were covered 
almost entirely with minute grotesques, small figures, 
stories and ornaments, executed in stucco in very low 
relief and partially coloured. It seemed a great marvel 
to find these decorations in so fair a state of preserva- 
tion after the lapse of so long a time, but this was 
explained by the fact that they had never been touched 
by the air, nor looked on by the light. 

This low-relief antique Roman stucco-work was the 
inspiration for the Adam brothers in making the 
decorations executed by them with such success in 
Iingland in the eighteenth century. 

Vasari explains that the name of grotesques was 
given to this form of decoration because they were 
first found in grottoes or subterranean places. They 
are similar to the early arabesques, since they consist 
of exquisitely graceful, finely modelled ornaments and 
flowing lines, with small figures, birds, and animals 
introduced into the design. 

Da Udine was enthralled with the discovery of the 
old stuccoes. He copied the designs at first, then, still 


STUCCO AND PLASTER ORNAMENTATION 103 


unsatisfied, began to imitate them with admirable 
designs of his own. All that he lacked was a knowledge 
of the way in which the hard white stucco had been 
compounded. After a series of experiments, however, 
he ultimately discovered that by grinding the whitest 
marble he could get to a fine powder, and mixing it 
with lime obtained from white travertine (the Roman 
building stone), he could produce the stucco of the 
ancients, with all its properties of whiteness, hardness, 
and brilliancy. 

‘‘ Greatly rejoiced with this result, Giovanni then 
showed Raphael what he had done; and as the latter 
was then in process of adorning the papal loggia, as 
we have already said, by command of Pope Leo X, he 
caused Giovanni to decorate all the vaultings of the 
same with most beautiful ornaments in stucco, sur- 
rounding the whole with grottesche similar to those 
of the antique, all being enriched with the most pleas- 
ing and fanciful inventions, and exhibiting the most 
singular and most varied objects that can possibly 
be imagined. The whole work was executed in mezzo- 
and basso-rilievo * * * with borders of much 
beauty.”’ 

Da Udine’s successful experiments with hard white 
stucco (stucco duro) were the beginning of a new sys- 
tem of interior decoration in the early period of the 
Italian Renaissance. 

At the start of this period, stucco ornamentation 
took the place of the painted and gilded wooden ceil- 
ings that had been characteristic of the Middle Ages. 
Gradually it encroached on the walls, being often used 


104 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


in combination with paintings and sometimes with 
painted silks or damasks (plate 610). 

The foremost stucco worker in Italy during the 
Middle Renaissance was Giulio Romano, who executed 
work in the Vatican, left some notable stuccoes in the 
Palazzo del Té, at Mantua, and is represented as well 
by many decorations of this sort in chapels and palaces 
throughout Italy. 

Under Raphael, and together with Giovanni da 
Udine, Romano also made much of the beautiful stucco 
work in the Villa Madama, which was the first of the 
great Roman villas of the Renaissance (plate 500). 

But perhaps the most familiar name among the 
Italian stuccatori of the sixteenth century is that of 
Primaticcio of Bologna, because he formed a link be- 
tween Italy and France in the development of this art. 

Primaticcio had been associated with Giulio 
Romano in the work in the Palazzo del Té, where he 
executed the Sala dei Cavalli, with its designs of 
Roman horses. The success of this room brought him 
into high favour with Duke Federigo, so that when 
Francois Premier wrote from Paris to the Duke in 
1531, requesting that a young man who understood 
painting and stucco work might be sent to him to do 
similar decoration in the Palace of Fontainebleau, the 
Duke dispatched Primaticcio. Twelve months earlier 
another Italian painter, named Rosso, had entered the 
service of the French King, but the first important 
stucco-work done in France and the first frescoes of 
note are said to have been commenced by Primaticcio. 

The seventeenth century in Italy saw stucco still 





PLATE 500, THE BEAUTIFUL SIXTEENTH CENTURY STUCCO DECORATIONS IN THE VILLA MADAMA, ROME 
DETAIL OF A PILASTER AND NICHE 


Decorations by Giovanni da Udine and Giulio Romano 


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STUCCO AND PLASTER ORNAMENTATION 105 


continuing in popularity in the heavier and bolder 
designs of the Baroque style. Heavy stucco cornices 
were used, and stucco decoration was often chosen as 
the sole ornament of walls (plate 501), employed in 
architectural forms, with bold mouldings and orna- 
ments characteristic of the period. At other times the 
paintings of gardens and villas adorning the walls 
were framed in large ornamental stucco frames (plate 
502). As the domination of Spanish rule in Italy grew 
stronger, French tendencies in design gave way to 
Spanish influence, and styles in stucco became more 
florid and exaggerated. Toward the end of the century, 
however, there was again a tendency to return to what 
may be called the Baroque-Palladian style. 

The Italian Louis XV period was especially favour- 
able to stucco-work. Little wood-panelling was used 
on the walls, but a great deal of plaster and stucco, in 
which either the background or the design: was painted 
in colour. Panelled dadoes in plaster were almost a 
fixed rule, and many walls were decorated with Chinoi- 
serie designs in stucco relief, such as may be seen 
to-day in the Villa Lazzara-Pisani at Stra (colour 
plate number IV). The gambling-house of the Contessa 
Venier in Venice also has some interesting stucco deco- 
ration of this period (plate 503). 

Cornices and pilasters and also the architraves of 
doors and windows were of stucco when they were not 
made of marble, and often were painted to imitate 
various real marbles. 

Throughout the Louis XVI period, the fashion con- 
tinued in more delicate designs, which were almost an 


106 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


exact rendering of the classic (plate 504). Stucco 
decorations at this time were frequently and very 
suitably used as the sole ornaments in the little 
‘‘nowder closets’’ where great ladies retired to have 
their amazing head-dresses whitened to suit the mode. 
One of these charming small rooms still exists in the 
Palazzo Grimani in Venice. 

Under the Empire, stucco was used in combination 
with painted Pompeian decoration. The rooms of the 
Palazzo Pitti (plate 505) show the grandiose and some- 
what heavy development of the style. 


ENGLAND 


Shortly after Primaticcio went from Italy into 
France, carrying with him the Renaissance traditions 
in painting and sculpture, the English King, Henry 
VIII, who was the contemporary and rival of Francois 
Premier, decided to build himself a palace which could 
not be outdone by any grandeurs on the continent, and 
began the erection of Nonesuch, near Hampton Court. 
This old palace was sacked in the days of Cromwell, 
and was finally razed, but the fame of the beauty of 
its decorations still exists. Again the stucco-work was 
done under the direction of an Italian. The artist in 
charge was Toto del Annuziata, who is known as 
‘¢Anthony ‘Toto’’ in old English records. He was 
assisted by Nicholas of Modena, who had worked with 
Primaticcio at Fontainebleau in 1533. Nonesuch was 
one of the first buildings in England to receive stucco 
embellishments. 

The chief labours of the Italian stuccatori in this 





PLATE 503. DOORWAY OF A SALON IN THE RIDOTTO VENIER 
VENICE 


The overdoor and wall decorations are eighteenth century stucco in colour 





GS IN 


TIN 


ORATIONS COMBINED WITH LANDSCAPE PAIN 


| 


LOUIS XVI STUCCO DE 


PLATE 504 


FLORENCE 


> 


THE POGGIO IMPERIALE 





PLATE 505. ITALIAN EMPIRE STUCCO DECORATION IN THE VESTIBULE OF THE 
BATHROOM OF MARIA LUISA, PALAZZO PITTI, FLORENCE 





STUCCO HUNTING FRIEZE IN THE PRESENCE-—CHAMBER OF HARDWICKE HALL 


Done under the direction of Charles Will 


THE MAGNIFICENT 


PLATE 506. 


ams in the sixteenth century 


i 


STUCCO AND PLASTER ORNAMENTATION 107 


palace were bestowed on the ceilings and on the mag- 
nificent friezes which adorned the upper parts of the 
walls, for stucco-work in England was largely re- 
stricted to these two placements until the early eigh- 
teenth century. Some splendid panels were also made 
to set over chimney-pieces instead of wood-carving 
and were modelled to represent hunting scenes, coats 
of arms, etc. 

It may be imagined that Nonesuch quickly set the 
fashion for the decoration of other English houses, 
and that the art of stuccoing acquired great merit in 
the eyes of English workmen. 

-Bankart, whose fine history of plaster work in Eng- 
land is a complete record of the art, relates that in 
1547 an English stuccoist by the name of Charles 
Williams made his appearance. He had travelled in 
Italy, was familiar with the old Roman stuccoes, and 
apparently knew and understood the process, for he 
‘‘flowered the hall’? at Longleat so successfully that 
his services were later requested by Sir William 
Cavendish and his wife, who wrote a letter in which 
they call him ‘‘that cunning playsterer.’’ 

Williams established a school of English stucco 
modellers, so that it would be unnecessary to call for- 
eign workmen into the country to do this sort of 
decoration. The magnificent frieze in the Presence 
Chamber of Hardwicke Hall (see plate 506) was done 
under his direction. 

During the prosperous reign of Queen Elizabeth, 
when so many houses were built in every part of the 
Kingdom, we usually find all the important rooms 


108 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


ornamented with rich plaster ceilings and friezes, and 
this fashion continued throughout the rule of James I 
and Charles I. The frieze in these days was often 
enhanced with colour and gilding. But instead of using 
stucco, the Elizabethan plasterers worked largely in 
parge—which was a coarser composition, consisting of 
lime, hair, and cow-dung. This was laid thickly on 
the wall, and stamped with decorative designs of 
strap work, flowers, and conventional figures. We 
may believe that these ornaments were finished off 
by hand, although they kept a somewhat crude and 
rough quality. 

Pargetting was largely used for exterior and inte- 
rior walls in the houses of this period. Elizabethan 
plaster work, however, differed vastly in design from 
the French and Italian work of the same period. In 
the latter two countries, where ceilings as a rule were 
higher and apartments larger, more ambitious forms 
of treatment were used. T'he human figure was preva- 
lent in most of the stucco modelling. In England 
this form of decoration was not adaptable to low 
Elizabethan rooms, and simpler designs were required 
of the plasterers. Flowers, fruit, and animals, vines 
and geometrical designs were preferred. . 

With the Commonwealth came the deterioration of 
plaster work, not to be revived until the days of Inigo 
Jones, Christopher Wren, and Grinling Gibbons. 
Wren himself prepared many designs for plaster 
work, and Grinling Gibbons executed them under 
Wren’s orders, in realistic fashion, modelling his 
characteristic fruits and birds and flowers in place on 





PLATE 507. ROCOCO STUCCO WALL DECORATION IN THE LADIES’ 
ROOM OF ELTHAM LODGE, KENT 


The round niche in the plaster frame is designed to hold a bust, supported by 
the wall console 


From “English Homes”’ by H. Avery Tipping. Courtesy of William Helburn 





PLATE 508. STUCCO DECORATION IN THE DINING—ROOM 
OF HARINGTON HOUSE, BOURTON—-ON-THE-WATER, LATE 
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 
Courtesy of H. D. Eberlein 


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hs SS ae 





PLATE 509. SMALL DRAWING—-ROOM WITH ADAM STUCCO DECORATIONS 
Courtesy of House and Garden 


STUCCO AND PLASTER ORNAMENTATION 109 


the walls. For illustrations of fine types of ceilings 
of this period see illustrations in the chapter on 
wood-panelling. 

About 1740 England began to feel the influence 
of the French Rococo style, which lent itself fluently 
to expression in stucco (plates 507 and 508). The 
Rococo, however, never became an integral part of 
English life, except in Chippendale’s designs. The 
walls of a few houses were decorated in the Italian 
manner with light Rococo motifs, and wall-pictures 
were sometimes framed in Rococo stucco frames. The 
style existed half-heartedly until it was displaced by 
the severely classic formality of the Adam brothers. 

Adam ornament, as we have already said, was 
based on the low relief of old Roman stuccoes. The 
Adam brothers wrote in explanation of their work: 
‘‘We nave introduced a great diversity of ceilings, 
friezes, and decorative pilasters (plate 509), and have 
added grace and beauty to the whole by a mixture of 
grotesque stucco and painted ornaments. We flatter 
ourselves we have been able to seize with some degree 
of success the beautiful spirit of antiquity, and to 
inform it with novelty and variety through all our 
numerous works.’’ 

The ancient custom of painting either ground-work 
or pattern was also adopted by the English designers. 
This was intended by them ‘‘to take off the glare of 
the white, to relieve the ornaments, and to create a 
harmony between the ceiling and the side-walls with 
their decorations.’’ 

At this time, instead of the plaster hitherto in use, 


110 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


a new composition called Liardet’s, of which Adam 
was inventor and proprietor, was substituted. The old 
free modelling of the sixteenth century Italian stucca- 
tori was abandoned in favour of moulds, into which the 
new composition was pressed when hot. This rendered 
the plasterer’s work rapid and mechanical, 

Among the various ornaments used by the brothers 
Adam were octagons, hexagons, ovals, rounds, lozenge- 
shaped panels, husks, fans, sphinxes, Greek and Roman 
vases, wreaths, honeysuckle, medallions with figures, 
festoons, fauns, cupids, goats, eagle-headed grotesques, 
drapery, ribbons, caryatids, mythological subjects, 
rams’ heads, lions’ and eagles’ claws for feet, griffins, 
sea-horses, patere, Greek and Roman ornaments, ete., 
and draped figures. 

A special use for stucco was discovered in dining- 
rooms, where it displaced hangings of damask and 
tapestry, which retained food-odors. These rooms the 
Adam brothers adorned with painting's and with stucco 
statues in niches (plate 510). 

Ornaments of ceilings, side-walls, etc., were of 
stueco, and were picked out with different tints, ‘‘some- 
times different tints of green, which they claim to have 
a simple and elegant effect. The chimney-piece in a 
best room was of statuary marble, and the overmantel 
carved in wood and gilt, sometimes painted; where 
there were medallions in the centre of the pediment, 
they were painted. The drawing-room varied from 
other rooms by having a coved ceiling, painted in com- 
partments. The rooms were sometimes divided into 
compartments by pilasters (plate 511), and the orna- 


ERK NA REF OREN IG 


PLATE 510, 


THE ANTEROOM OF LANSDOWNE HOUSE, LONDON, WITH NICHES, STUCCO STATUES, AND 
THE WALL. DECORATION BY ADAM 





PAINTINGS SET INTO 


Gast aan 
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preresceelee® 

















Photograph by Mattie Edwards Hewitt 
PLATE 511. DRAWING—-ROOM IN THE STYLE OF ADAM IN THE HOUSE OF N. A. BRADY 
MANHASSET, LONG ISLAND 
J.T. Windrim, architect 


STUCCO AND PLASTER ORNAMENTATION 111 


ments of these, with the arches and panels of the doors, 
were painted. The ornament of the friezes of the room 
were of stucco, and the ornaments on the door carved. 
Sometimes the ornaments in the niches were gilt, as 
were also the girandoles and stucco ornaments of the 
ceilings and sides of rooms. Drawing-rooms were hung 
with damask, tapestry, etc., but not the eating-room.’’ ? 

The delicacy of Adam ornament was _ stressed 
almost to attenuation. Horace Walpole writes of 
Adam ’s ‘*‘ gingerbread and sippets of embroidery, his 
filigree and fan-paintings.”’ 

About this time Michel Angelo Pergolesi, who was 
employed by the Adam brothers, produced his work 
on decoration, which included ‘‘designs for low-relief 
plaster-work for walls, ceilings, architraves, chimney- 
pieces, furniture, ete.’’ 

For the centre panels in stucco-adorned ceilings 
of this period there were usually painted decorations, 
many of which were done by Cipriani, Zucchi, or the 
celebrated Angelica Kauffmann. 


FRANCE 


As we have said, the first important stueco-work in 
France came with the advent of the Italian artist, 
Primaticcio, who was summoned to Fontainebleau by 
Francois Premier in 1531. A few examples of stucco- 
work of seemingly earlier date exist in the south of 
France, but cannot be attributed to any special de- 
signer. Primaticcio, however, proceeded to show how 


1Hnglish Furniture, Woodwork, and Decoration during the High- 
teenth Century, by T. A. Strange. 


112 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


magnificently this material could be used in the 
proper hands. | 

With his band of assistants, among whom were 
artists of many different nationalities, imcluding 
French, Flemish, and Italian workmen, whose names — 
are still preserved in the records of the royal expendi- 
tures, he constructed for the King splendid cornices 
replete with human heads and figures, great mantel- 
pieces that could not be distinguished from marble, 
statues for fountains, and every sort of wall decoration 
for which stucco could be used in combination with 
painting and gilding (plate 512). 

Stucco in France enjoyed undisputed favour until 
1575, and was employed not only for the interior 
decoration of palaces, but also for the exterior of 
buildings. Under Louis XIII one of the great orna- 
mental features of a room was the beautiful plaster 
ceiling, with its frieze and ornaments, treated in an 
elaborate and somewhat ponderous style. The painted 
panels which these stucco ornaments framed were 
decorated by nearly every famous artist of the day. 

During the religious troubles under Henry II, taste 
changed, until by the end of the sixteenth century 
stucco decoration had fallen into disuse. It returned 
to favour, however, when Anne of Austria became 
regent, and the Italian Pietro Sasso, together with the 
sculptor, Michel Anguier, was appointed to stucco the 
chamber of the Queen Mother at the Louvre. A few 
years later the work was largely in the hands of 
French stucateurs. 

The brothers Gaspard and Balthazar De Marsy 


SIRLI UR ise li ha attabas ontuasteoml metite 


ne eee ISIN j 





fa 
PLATE 512. STUCCO DECORATION AND PANELLING MADE FOR FRANCOIS I AT FONTAINEBLEAU 
The King’s initials and his emblem, the salamander, will be found in the carved panels 
From “ Art Architectural en France,” by Darcel 


doys & 07UI payIaAU0D MON 
sluvd ‘LOUTNOd AUYUAId ANY ‘AUGIHLAOD SHLOH AHL NI ‘NOILVHOOUd OOONLS IAX SINOT HLIM NOTYS ‘S19 ALVWId 








“FI¢ ALVId 


NI HOIH LAS SNOITIVGGW OODNLS HLIM NOTYS 


‘STIVM HHL 


SIUVd “AUAIHLAOD IMLOH 


uopuriry Aq WsiUAdoD 








: 
‘ 
. 
: 





PLATE 515. THE SMALL ROUND LOUIS XVI BOISERIE RECENTLY INSTALLED IN THE 
MUSEE CARNAVALET IN PARIS 
Stucco decorations in white and Wedgwood blue 


STUCCO AND PLASTER ORNAMENTATION 113 


enriched the vestibule and the petit cabinet of 
Ifontainebleau in stucco. At the Louvre, Nicholas le 
Grande, Laurent Magnier, Filibert Bernard, and 
Henri le Grande executed the cornice of the Grande 
Galerie, also the ceilings of the Tuileries. Thomas 
Regnardin decorated the chamber and the grand 
cabinet of the King at Versailles, and Pierre Hutinot 
the salon of the same apartment. Baptiste Tubi and 
Pierre Mazelinus were charged with the ceilings of the 
chambers and cabinets of the apartment of the Queen. 

During the eighteenth century this kind of work 
continued to be appreciated as highly as the most 
beautiful pieces of sculpture. Examine the exquisite 
stucco panels and modelling in the Louis XVI house 
in the rue Pierre Boulet, now converted into a shop 
(plates 513 and 514). There are works of Audran still 
in existence which prove the art and the skill lavished 
upon stucco. Architects as well as decorators and 
artists found it useful. 

Under Louis XVI, and also during the Directoire, 
statues were made of fine white stucco, which had so 
much the quality of marble that they could stand out 
of doors without damage. 

By 1760, there were over 4000 stucateurs or workers 
in stucco in the Kingdom of France. All the great 
chateaux as well as the Paris buildings were decorated 
with these imitations of marble. The dining-hall of the 
Palais Royal was furnished with stucco architecture 
‘‘whose freshness and polish imitate marble perfectly,’’ 
and the oval salon of the Hotel Soubise had eight 
pendentives in stucco, of which four are attributed to 


114 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


Adam the elder, and the remaining four to M. le Moyne. 
Nothing could be more charming than the small Louis 
XVI room in the collection of boiseries recently 
opened by the Musée Carnavalet in Paris, with its 
beautifully designed overdoor panels in white stucco, 
looking like Wedgwood plaques against a blue ground 
(plate 515). 

Stucco was even used in France for all sorts of 
bibelots, like bonbonniéres, wherever delicate model- 
ling of flowers and small designs was appropriate. It 
was also employed for ornaments of furniture. 

To-day, however, there is no such use of stucco in 
France. It is still appreciated for the modelling of 
cornices, friezes, columns, and for temporary decora- 
tion in exposition buildings, but finds no other impor- 
tant function in modern art and architecture. 

- A charming adaptation of a French stucco design 
with inset stone plaques is illustrated in plate 516. 


SPAIN 


Spanish ornamental plaster work was known as 
yeseria. 

In a country where practically no wood-panelling 
existed, plaster-work and tiles were the two most 
popular forms of wall decoration. 

Unlike Italian stucco, which was modelled free- 
hand, the earliest Spanish plaster-work was carved, the 
design being outlined before the plaster had set. As 
we might expect, the designs were largely geometric. 
In the sixteenth century some Italian motifs were used. 

Yeseria was used chiefly to form the decorative 





PLATE 517. SPANISH CUT PLASTER USED AS A FRIEZE 
BELOW THE WOODEN FRIEZE-BOARD OF THE CEILING 
In the residence of Conde de Casals 
Courtesy of Arthur Byne and William Helburn 


PLATE 516. HALLWAY IN THE PALM BEACH HOUSE OF 
MRS. JOHN MAGEE, WITH STUCCO DECORATION 


Walls, pale blue-green. Stucco draperies and frames grey, and plaques set in these 
frames a darker tone of grey 


Ag]WM0} OG souIIMLT UTLTTIAA JO Asaqunog 
a[[A9G ‘so}eTIg ep sey oy] Ul WOOL ¥ 
SMUD HLIM NOLLVNIGWOO NI STUNVd—TIVM 
GALLVYOOUd SV VINASHA HSINVdS GIO ‘6I¢ ALV Id 


c 





Ag[W10}OG YUIIML'T] UTLTTTIAA Jo AsoqanoD 


AVMUOOd V GNOOUV ANVUd V SV ‘SNDISHC 
HSIUOOW NI (VINASAA) MYOM UALSVId LAO HSINVdS GTO 


“SI¢ ULV Id 








PLATE 520. RENAISSANCE SGRAFFITO WORK IN THE COURTYARD OF THE PALAZZO SPINELLI, FLORENCE 


SINOJOD JURIT[IIG UI ae s10}e]D0ds 
ay] JO SauInjsoo ay} puke s}Ue} oY J, ‘JOATIS pue PfoOs st spreioy puL s}]ysIUy oy} Jo inowse ayy, ‘sjaued pooM UO foljal Ul oUOP a1v SUSISOp ot], 


ASNOH MHOA MAN UAH NI WOOU—-DNINIG NMO UAH YOR YNNA SHONVUA AM NOILVUOOUC TIVM OSSH9O “log WLW Id 





STUCCO AND PLASTER ORNAMENTATION § 115 


frames of windows and doors (plate 518), and to 
make a band below the wooden frieze-board of the 
ceiling (plate 517). It was sometimes used as wall- 
panels combined with tiles, as in the Sala del Audencia, 
in the Casa de Pilatos (plate 519), and around door- 
heads (plate 518). This decorative plaster was left 
white in Christian dwellings but was coloured in 
Moorish houses. 

A Spanish room with a wood ceiling, carved and 
painted, with doors and inside window-shutters of 
similar woodwork, and with a frieze of carved plaster 
and window-trim and door-trim in the same ornamental 
material, has a character of its own quite different 
from the interior architecture of other countries. 


SGRAFFITO 

Segraffito is a form of plaster-work in which a layer 
of white plaster is applied over a layer of colour. The 
design drawn on the surface is then carefully scraped 
or scratched away, so that the coloured background 
shows through (plate 520). 

Italy obtained many fine effects by this method of 
decoration, both on the interior and exterior of build- 
ings. Occasionally the old process is used here in 
America. The two most notable examples in New 
York are the facade of Alexander’s shoe shop on 
Fifth Avenue, and Thomas F.. Ryan’s loggia in East 
Sixty-seventh Street. 


GESSO 


Gesso is a form of hard plaster-work which was 
often employed in Italy during the sixteenth and 
8 


116 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


seventeenth centuries, but which is seldom seen to-day. 
The attempt to revive it has recently been made by 
Frances Burr, of New York, who has created a delight- 
ful dining-room for her own house by the use of gesso 
panels, which she modelled in relief and painted in 
the brilliant colours of an old illuminated manuscript 
(plate 521). 

The continuous scene is a tournament. The knights 
on their chargers are covered with armour of silver 
and gold leaf. With the striped tents, the ‘‘gallery’’ 
of noble ladies in medieval costumes, and a background 
of castles and hills, the room is a carefully executed 
and brilliant composition. It is illustrated here as 
a noteworthy example of a modern achievement in an 
ancient medium. 


PART II 


THE PRACTICAL USE OF PLASTER 
ORNAMENTATION 


a lost art to-day. Not only is it more than 

difficult to find workmen capable of modelling 
the designs in place on the walls, but the cost of such 
work would be prohibitive, even if workmen were 
available. Out of the old art, however, has developed 
the modern one of moulded plaster ornamentation, 
which is a practical and beautiful decoration for 
our homes. 

The various advantages of ornamental plaster-work 
in interior decoration are these: 

Any fine wood-carving—a cornice, a door-head, a 
mantel, a lunette, or a wall-panel—may be reproduced 
in plaster by means of gelatine moulds, at a cost 
that is not excessive. When in place, such ornaments 
may be painted, stained, varnished, or otherwise 
finished as desired. 

The largest part of the work is done out of the 
house. The plaster ornaments are brought in sections 
ready to put on the walls. After they have been 
fastened to the walls with plaster glue, the only 
plastering that must be done on the spot is that neces- 
sary to ‘‘point up’’ the work and to cover the attach- 
ments and the breaks in the design, so that it will seem 
actually an unbroken part of the wall. 


aN’ TUCCO DURO as the ancients knew it is almost 


ELT 


118 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


The cost of plaster ornamentation is less than a 
quarter of the cost of wood-carving. A plaster door- 
panel in linen-fold design costs about three dollars. If 
carved in wood, the same panel would cost about fif- 
teen dollars. A similar comparison holds good for 
mouldings, decorated cornices, etc. 

By means of plaster ornament, facsimiles of fine 
old English, French, and Italian ceilings are possible 
in modern rooms. Plaster friezes or cornices in every 
scale and every degree of simplicity or elaborateness 
may be used to complete the wall. 

Plaster mouldings can be run for wall-panels in 
any desired models, to use in place of wooden panel 
mouldings. 

Overdoor and over-mantel decorations in antique 
styles may be constructed as beautiful and valuable 
adjuncts to a scheme of decoration. 

The architectural features of a room are preserved 
and accented by the proper use of plaster orna- 
mentation. 

Under the section on plaster walls (Chapter IX) 
we shall take up in this book the various wall surfaces 
available through the use of this supple and sympa- 
thetic medium. Here we are concerned only with 
plaster ornament, which is extraneous to the actual 
wall surface. 

Plaster has not yet been given full credit for the 
place it can take in modern interiors. So much poor 
plaster ornament has been seen in cheaply constructed 
buildings, so much florid and over-elaborate plaster- 
work in public edifices like hotels and theatres, that 


STUCCO AND PLASTER ORNAMENTATION 119 


the beauty and adaptability of the medium for simple 
domestic interiors is still unappreciated by the major- 
ity of people. Yet there is no more facile method of 
attaining distinguished walls than by the proper use 
of this medium. 

A visit to one of the important ornamental 
plasterers of New York would be illuminating in this 
regard. Here is a collection of moulds of the fine 
ornaments of all time—Greek, Roman, French, and 
Knglish. Is a lunette needed for an Adam overdoor? 
Out of the eollection various models are chosen and 
assembled on a flat plaster ground of the proper size 
and shape. A band of laurel outlines the arch; a deli- 
cate medallion is placed in the centre; other motifs 
are grouped on the sides. Soon the composition is 
complete—ready to put up in place. 

An interesting fact about these large surfaces of 
plaster is their thinness. They are made on a founda- 
tion of burlap and mosquito-netting, pressed down 
into the plaster while it is still soft. When the mass 
hardens and ‘‘sets,’’ the fabric gives it enough body 
to hold it together in thin sheets, easily transportable, 
and yet so phable that they can be fitted into curves 
or angles at will. 

If a mantel is desired, the side-pieces, the entabla- 
ture and the mantel-shelf are cast separately in plaster. 
After being installed, they may be painted or marble- 
ized as desired. Mantel facings, however, must be 
constructed of brick, stone, or real marble, as a plaster 
facing is not practical. 

Small separate ornaments of plaster, imitating 


120 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


wood-carvings, may be used as decorations on wide, 
flat mirror frames, and gilded, or painted like the 
background. Narrow panels of fine plaster-work may 
also be had to run up each side of a mirror or a plain 
panel; and larger plaster ornaments with trophies or 
medallions can be used to form the decorative over- 
panel of a trumeau, or console mirror. 

Lighting fixtures, too, may be had in plaster com- 
position. Often they are mounted on wood, for greater 
strength, the brackets having heavy wire as a sup- 
port. The carvings of Grinling Gibbons, with masses 
of pendent flowers or foliage, and the less com- 
plicated Adam designs, are successfully reproduced by 
this means. 

Delicate pilasters and free or engaged columns, 
which add dignity and height to a room, may be ob- 
tained in classic models in plaster, either plain or 
ornamented, or polished to resemble marble, and made 
to accord with the proportions of the architectural 
plan (see plate 511). | 

Open radiator grills are now being made of 
plaster. Set flush with the wall and painted black, they 
give the effect of an ornamental iron grill. In rough 
plaster walls, they are left the colour of the rest of the 
surface, and look like stone carving or open tile work. 

The effect of beautifully carved doors or of wood 
wainscoting may be secured by making the stiles and 
rails of wood, and filling the panels with plaster 
plaques to represent carvings. Linen-fold panelling or 
Romayne work is successfully imitated in this way, as 
well as the less robust carvings of later periods. 


STUCCO AND PLASTER ORNAMENTATION 121 


An interesting room in the 1925 Architectural 
League Exhibition showed that plaster may also be 
used to imitate half-timber construction. Actual old 
beams were taken as models, and the plaster copies 
were stained with varnish when completed, to look 
like wood. When they took their place in a rough 
plaster wall the resemblance was striking. Of course, 
such architectural substitutions are not capable of 
supporting weight. Their province is merely effect, 
not service. 

The plaster composition known as scagliola is so 
perfect a representation of real marble that it is an 
excellent substitute. It finds a practical and distin- 
guished employment in dadoes, columns, door-frames 
and door-heads, for it has the polish and the coldness 
of marble, as well as the texture. Scagliola is made 
upon a plaster foundation with a special top coating, 
into which the workman introduces colour by drawing’ 
through it very heavy silk threads, soaked in pigments, 
which are swirled around, much in the manner of the 
combs which the old Dominotiers used to make the 
veinings of marbled papers. Rubbed down and pol- 
ished, the surface so closely resembles marble that it 
will deceive the most critical eye. 


At the start, the room that is to be decorated with 
plaster ornamentation must be carefully planned. This 
is another occasion when the work of the architect and 
the decorator are indissolubly linked. The plaster- 
work must be made to scale, and the plasterer will 
require blue prints of elevations of the room. 


122 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


It will speedily be apparent that plaster is a most 
obliging medium, adapting itself easily to every scale 
and to every kind of room. It is suitable for a foyer 
hall, where columns or niches are desirable. It is excel- 
lent for a formal drawing-room, where the cornice, the 
mantel, and the doors are the chief centres of architec- 
tural interest. It may be admirably used in a dining- 
room, as the Adam brothers discovered and ably 
proved. It is even charming in a bedroom, where it 
can be given warmth and personality by the addition 
of color. Small rooms or big rooms alike can be treated 
delightfully with plaster ornamentation, wherever it 
may be needed to give variety and interest in the 
decoration of an interior. 

The illustrations of this chapter will be the best 
evidence of some of its varied uses. Please note that 
in every instance the plaster ornamentation fills an 
architectural need and is not a meaningless, de- 
tached ornament, 


CHAPTER VI 
WALLS WITH APPLIED HANGINGS 









senses 





PLATE V. BEDROOM AT OWLPEN MANOR, ULEY, GLOUCESTERSHIRE, ENGLAND 
Linen painted in imitation of tapestry. C. 1708 





CHAPTER VI 
WALLS WITH APPLIED HANGINGS 


HE stone and rough plaster walls of early rooms 
undoubtedly possessed a fine rude strength and 


a simplicity that was admirable. The essential 
home qualities which they lacked, however, were the 
feeling and aspect of warmth and comfort, which noth- 
ing can create in so satisfactory a fashion as textiles. 

When tapestries, or arras, were hung against their 
surfaces, these barren rooms immediately assumed a 
more sociable and luxurious atmosphere. In dim 
lights and shadows, the ‘‘storied walls’’ became mys- 
terious and colourful. The sternness of the stone was 
tempered to a becoming contrast with the texture of 
the woven hangings. 

Tapestries and embroideries were the first textiles 
to be used to contribute beauty to walls. Under the 
unsettled living conditions of the time, they were most 
practical decorations, for they could be quickly taken 
down, folded up, and packed away in chests when a 
raid or a hostile invasion drove a family from its 
home. For this reason they were always free-hang- 
ing in the earliest days of their history and rarely 
affixed to the walls. 

‘‘Teather tapestries’’ followed woven tapestries as 
wall decorations and quickly obtained a vogue, since 
they were found to look cooler in summer-time and 

125 


126 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


helped to keep in heat during the cold winter months. 
These leather hangings, also, moved about with their 
owners until late in the fifteenth century, when they 
were affixed to the walls and let into panels. 

After tapestries and leathers comes a long proces- 
sion of stuffs used for wall coverings, adopted in turn 
as styles of interior architecture and manners of life 
changed, and discarded with the coming of new 
fashions. Painted tove, or canvas, had its day. Broca- 
telle, velvet, damask, and brocade reigned supreme in 
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Printed linen 
and cotton claimed a place on the walls of the eigh- 
teenth century. Painted taffeta introduced a new note, 
of elegance. And finally came wall-papers, which, be- 
cause of their effectiveness and their small cost, did 
much to diminish the use of other and more sumptu- 
ous stuffs. 

As fixed schemes of decoration developed, woven 
textiles were made a structural part of the wall by 
being let into panels or strained flat over the surface 
to cover it completely. 


TAPESTRIES AS WALL DECORATIONS 


The design of tapestry in different centuries has 
had much to do with determining the manner of its 
use on walls. 

Decorative Gothic tapestries, consisting of mille- 
fleurs designs and large foliage motifs, were never 
intended to be strained flat. Their function was to 
hang in large soft folds from ceiling to floor, giving 
graciousness to the bare stone walls behind them. If 





PLATE 600, ECCLESIASTICAL GOTHIC TAPESTRY HU 





YG FLAT ON THE WALL 





PLATE 601. RENAISSANCE TAPESTRIES 
In the living-room in the house of Philip L. Goodwin at Syosset, Long Island 














PLATE 602. EIGHTEENTH CENTURY FRENCH TAPESTRIES FRAMED AS PANELS IN THE WALL 


WALLS WITH APPLIED HANGINGS 127 


they are treated otherwise than as a movable decora- 
tion, they lose many of their best qualities. 

Ecclesiastical Gothic tapestries, on the other hand, 
because they are designed somewhat like mural decora- 
tions, may be treated as if they were pictures, hung 
flat, and framed in the manner of paintings (plate 600). 

Renaissance tapestries, whose designs are truly 
pictorial, nevertheless are generally not good enough 
as ‘‘paintings’’ to be hung in this way. They will be 
still more effective if they are used purely as free- 
hanging textile decorations, allowing them to fall in 
soft folds (plate 601). 

Verdure tapestries of the seventeenth century are 
eminently suitable to employ as a fixed and permanent 
all-over wall-covering, after the manner of brocades. 
The tapestries designed by Berain were intended to 
be set in as flat panels on the wall. 

Exghteenth century French picture-panels of tap- 
estry in light and delicate tones cannot be suitably 
installed except by framing them and using them in 
the place of paintings (plate 602). 

It is scarcely necessary to say here that, whether 
tapestries be used as movable or as fixed decorations, 
they must always be placed with consideration of 
architectural details. They should never turn corners 
or overrun a column that is part of the structure of a 
room. The cornice and the baseboard are their boun- 
daries when they are hung free; the dado limits them 
if they are set as panels in eighteenth century schemes. 
Any violation of these laws will be to the detriment 
both of the tapestry and of the room. 


128 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


Those who are interested in following the fascinat- 
ing history of tapestries from earliest days are re- 
ferred to ‘‘The Practical Book of Tapestries’’ by 
George Leland Hunter. 


LEATHER HANGINGS 


So far as origins can be definitely established, it 
would seem that the art of making decorated leather 
began as an Arab or Moorish custom, dating from the 
thirteenth century. 

The surface of the small square skins was first 
covered with paste, over which, while it was still soft, 
leaves of silver were spread and allowed to dry. Ifa 
gold background was wanted, the silver was usually 
lacquered with a carefully compounded varnish, which 
brought out a colour imitating gold. Occasionally the 
leather-workers indulged in the use of gold leaf instead 
of silver leaf. The sheet was then stretched over 
wooden blocks which had been engraved with the 
designs to be stamped into the leather. Afterwards it 
was heated and passed under a press. Then followed 
the tooling and painting of the designs by hand, and 
the stitching together into large pieces of the desired 
size for use on walls or floors. 

The city of Cordova in Spain was the seat of this ~ 
industry in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. A 
traveller to that community in 1575 wrote of the ex- 
traordinary aspect of the streets of Cordova, where the 
leather was spread out to dry after it had been gilded, 
worked, and painted. It must indeed have filled the 
city with a sort of shining splendour. 


Vee vee CCT ETE 





PLATE 603. BLACK AND GOLD LEATHER ROOM IN THE PLANTIN MORETUS MUSEUM, ANTWERP 


WU] _ SepBYD Jo AsoyINOD *ynoroouUOD ‘aypAyooy ye [PoEMxE IAL WITT “AJA, JO esnoy oy} uy 
S}UIUI}IVdUIOD paje1O0apP YIM POOM Padsvd Jo SI ZurIe0 ayy, 


Naduos YON GasSN AGNV STTVM NO STANVd NI LOS SNWOTIOO GULSIML GNV SUSVA JO SNDISAC NI YaHLVAT NVILANGA GTO *F09 ALVId 


i 


i 





WALLS WITH APPLIED HANGINGS 129 


So famous has the Spanish industry become that 
leather hangings are still to-day generally known as 
‘‘Cordovanes.’’ In Spain they are called guadama- 
ciles, a word adapted from the name of the African 
village Ghadames, celebrated since the twelfth century 
for the making of stamped leather. 

George Leland Hunter, in writing of leather wall 
decorations, says: 

‘¢Walls in the sixteenth century in Spain were often 
embellished by surrounding them with arches wrought 
of leather in relief, and superimposed on leather. As 
a rule, the arches were gilt and silvered, and rested on 
pilasters or columns. When pilasters were used, their 
centre would be ornamented with Italian devices, such 
as flowers, trophies, cameos, and foliage. Landscapes, 
with, a far horizon and no figures, known as boscaje or 
pintura verde, were painted on the spaces between the 
arches, so that the general effect was that of a pavilion 
with arches on all sides, displaying everywhere a wide 
expanse of fertile country. 

‘‘The development of woven tapestries, in France 
and in Flanders, in the fifteenth century and their great 
vogue in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries did not 
seem to hinder the use of leather on walls and floors.’’ 

Very quickly after the proof of their success as a 
sanitary and cool and decorative wall covering, the 
making of leather hangings was taken up by Italy, by 
the Low Countries, by France, and later to a lesser 
degree by England. They remained a sumptuous form 
of decoration until they were to some extent imitated 
and supplanted by wall-paper. 


130 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


Cordova leathers were always in strong relief, 
gilded (or silvered) and painted: the designs con- 
sisted of branches of flowers as in the fabrics of India 
and Damascus. 

Flanders leathers were very similar to the Spanish, 
but the relief was less pronounced. The decorative 
leathers of the Low Countries were nearly always 
made from cow-skins, which were thicker and stronger 
than sheepskins. In design, Dutch leathers differed 
from Spanish work in being for the most part realistic 
flower treatments, with tulips and carnations, which 
were the favourite decorative motives in Holland from 
the middle of the seventeenth century to the middle of 
the eighteenth century (plate 603). 

Venetian leathers were usually not in relief, but 
were gilded and painted (plate 604). 

French leathers had the qualities of all the other 
nations, but were distinguished in design by the par- 
ticular taste of the country, and influenced by the 
styles of the different periods. | 

Portuguese leathers were neither gilded nor 
painted—they were simply stamped with designs. 

In Spain, ‘‘leather tapestries’? held a foremost 
place all during the seventeenth century, but lost im- 
portance in the eighteenth owing to the competition 
of other countries. 

Quantities of gilded leather were exported to the 
Spanish colonies in America during the height of 
its popularity. 

One of the Fitzhughs of Virginia wrote to London 
in 1686 that he had a ‘‘very good dwelling house with 


WALLS WITH APPLIED HANGINGS 131 


thirteen rooms in it, four of the best of these hung 
with tapestry or leather, and nine of them plentifully 
furnished with all things necessary and convenient”’ 
for what he esteemed ‘‘gentile living.’’ 

Leonardo Fiovarenti wrote from Italy in 1596: 
‘‘Decorated leather is an art much in use in Rome, 
Naples, Sicily, and Bologna, in France and Spain and 
other places; most of those who make use of this prod- 
uct are great and illustrious personages. It is called 
‘the art of gold,’ and not without reason, for it pro- 
duces gold and silver, enriching those who practice it.’’ 

Leather hangings in Italy began to take the place 
of tapestries with the coming of the sixteenth century. 
Montaigne, while on his grand tour in 1580-1581, noted 
apartments in Rome ‘‘with a great deal of gilt 
leather.’’ There still exist in some of the old palaces 
leather rooms that prove the beauty attained by this 
art. The writer has seen and remembers with the 
greatest delight a small red Venetian leather room in 
the old Palazzo Vendramin in Venice. But leather 
never held a place so dear to the hearts of the Italians 
as stucco and fresco painting. 

From Italy the fashion of leather walls came to 
France, and the first fabrication of decorated leather 
in Paris was established by Gehan Fourcanet in 1558. 

Catherine de Medicis, with her Italian traditions, 
was particularly fond of this sort of wall decoration. 
She commanded, for her own use and for presentation 
to her daughter and to others, many leathers of exceed- 
ing richness. Some of them are described in the 
inventories as ‘‘gold and silver hangings on an 


182 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


orange ground, with the queen’s cipher.’’ Others 
again were ‘‘sea-green with red and dove colour 
mountings,’’ or ‘‘blue, with gold, silver, and red 
mountings.’’ Such hangings were made in Paris, in 
Lyons, and in Avignon. 

The seventeenth century in France saw these wall 
decorations vying in favour with rich damasks and 
tapestries, and the first part of the eighteenth century 
found them installed in the palaces of Versailles, St. 
Germain, and Fontainebleau. Some of their magnifi- 
cence may be imagined from reading their descriptions. 
For example, the antechamber of the Duc d’Orleans in 
the Palace of Versailles had a ‘‘tapestry of gilded 
leather on a red ground, with masks and swags of 
gold, cupids and birds,’’ forming the over-mantel and 
overdoor decoration. 

Such leather hangings paid the penalty of being too 
high-priced and too dearly coveted. It was soon pro- 
posed to make nothing but repeating motifs, since this 
necessitated only a small number of blocks, and pres- 
ently imitations of leather were produced with ftovle 
and wall-paper, so that the original fabric was sup- 
planted in popularity. 

In Flanders a strong impetus was given by the 
Renaissance to the making of gilt leathers, and much 
of the product was exported to France and to Hng- 
land, in spite of the rivalry of French and Italian 
manufactories. 

Amsterdam and the Hague were the centres of the 
industry in Holland; and Lille, Brussels, Antwerp, 
and Mechlin had prosperous factories in Flanders. 


WALLS WITH APPLIED HANGINGS 133 


From the Netherlands the use of gilt leather 
travelled to England, Stuart walls (1603-1688) having 
leathers introduced as friezes and fillings. 

The industry, however, remained largely one of 
importation, and not of home manufacture, although 
in 1638 Christopher of London patented a process of 
making cheaper leather decorations. 

We find in Pepys’ diary a mention of the gilt leather 
in his dining-room, and the ‘‘gilt leather parlour’’ of 
Dyrham Park is still in existence. 

Throughout the reign of William and Mary this 
sort of wall covering continued in favour, but with the 
eighteenth century it fell into disuse. 


A famous example of a painted leather room is the 
‘Peacock Room’’ by James McNeill Whistler in the 
Freer Gallery of Art in Washington. Both the ceiling 
and the side-walls of this room are covered with 
Spanish leather, whose decorations were originally red 
flowers. Whistler, however, transformed the colour 
scheme into a blue and gold arrangement and filled it 
with decorative motifs from a peacock’s plumage. 

At the end of the room, as shown in illustration 
605, he painted a panel which he called ‘‘the rich 
peacock and the poor peacock,’’ the former having his 
feathers dotted with golden sovereigns and the poor 
peacock facing him, defiant and proud. This picture 
was intended as an ironic comment on the relations 
between the artist and Frederick Leyland, for whom 
the room was constructed as a ‘‘china cabinet.’’ Re- 
fusing to pay Whistler more than half the sum he 


134 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


demanded for redecorating the room, Leyland found 
himself satirized in typical Whistlerian fashion by 
the panel of the ‘‘rich peacock.’’ 


DAMASKS AND WOVEN STUFFS AS 
WALL COVERINGS 


While frescoes, paintings, and stucco were the chief 
wall decorations in Italy in the fifteenth century, we 
often hear of walls hung with fine stuffs in the suc- 
ceeding century. In fact it was even necessary to curb 
extravagance in this sort of wall decoration, as is 
proved by laws enacted in 1595 and 1598, which forbade 
a governor to hang the hall and chambers of his villa 
with silk. Satin, camlet, and stamped leather were 
permitted, but only to a certain height up the walls. 
Tapestries could be used in one room only, while 
carpets, tablecloths of silk and gold, and silk window- 
curtains were allowed only in the principal room. 
Other stringent laws regarding the covering of furni- 
ture were appended to this. Later the severity of these 
laws was relaxed, and we find in the seventeenth cen- 
tury many rooms hung with velvet and damask, which 
formed a beautiful background for portraits and for 
silt mirrors (plate 606). 

The living apartments of Roman palaces decorated 
in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries 
were hung with red velvet or damask with a broad gold ~ 
galloon at every breadth of the stuff and a gold fringe 
fishing the top and the bottom. 


Ineredible richness was given to the rooms by the 
use of jardiniére velvets, such as still exist in the 


PLATE 605. 


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THE FAMOUS PEACOCK ROOM BY WHISTLER, NOW IN THE FREER ART GALLERY IN WASHINGT 
The panel painted on leather shows ‘ the rich peacock and the poor peacock” 





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WALLS WITH APPLIED HANGINGS 135 


house of Count Terzo at Bergamo, and by the em- 
broidered hangings made by the clever needlewomen 
of a family, whose not particularly valuable time was 
spent in such tasks of devotion. The chapel of the 
Villa Le Corti is hung with damask enriched with 
embroidery in this fashion. 

We find red, green, and yellow damask used in 
these wall coverings, but the favourite colour was 
perhaps red. 

The Italian practice of hanging walls with damask 
and velvet continued well into the eighteenth century, 
and it was not uncommon for every room in an apart- 
ment, from the great antechamber to the bedroom, to 
be covered with the same colour. 

In England, during the seventeenth century, tapes- 
tries, brocades, and velvets were used as wall cover- 
ings, as alternates to wood-panelling, and this fashion 
continued throughout the reign of William ITI, with 
whom it is most intimately associated. 

Large-patterned velvets and damasks of Italian 
manufacture hung flat on the walls in the early eigh- 
teenth century, their design and colour giving the rich- 
est effect to the rooms. And in bedrooms and informal 
apartments were used the printed English chintzes and 
ealicoes looked on with such approval by Queen Mary. 

The ‘‘Italian fashion’? was followed when velvets 
or brocades were used on: the walls, furniture being 
covered with the same materials. Velvet in the eigh- 
teenth century, however, was entirely superseded by 
silk hangings and wall-papers. 

Writing the ‘‘Complete Body of Architecture’’ in 


136 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


1756, Isaac Ware noted three different wall treatments 
that were in vogue at the time. The first was stucco; 
the second, wood wainscot; the third, hanging with 
various textiles. 

His comments on the results of the three kinds of | 
decoration are interesting. ‘‘In general,’’ he says, 
‘‘the stucco rooms, which are those where the wall is 
left naked, but ornamented in itself, are cold; those 
wainscoted are naturally warmer; and those which are 
hung (with silk, tapestry, and other textiles), warm- 
est.’’ In final judgment, he characterizes stucco as 
the grandest decorative method; wainscot, as the neat- 
est; and hanging with textiles, as the most gaudy! 

Louis XI was responsible for the first interest taken 
by the French nation in damask as a fabric. Under 
his auspices Italian workmen were encouraged to come 
into France to help in weaving the stuff that later, 
under Colbert’s administration, was to become one of 
the famous products of the Kingdom. 

Used at first for bed hangings and furniture, French 
damask soon attained the dignity of wall coverings. 
In the sixteenth century, as in Italy, fortunes were 
spent on wall damasks. The seventeenth century, how- 
ever, was the golden age of this beautiful stuff, which 
was looked on with great favour by Louis XIV. The 
King’s favourite colour was rouge cramoisi, a rich 
shade of crimson, and, to estimate from the records 
of the amounts supplied by the looms of France, sur- 
prisingly large orders were placed for the court and its 
nobles in this particular shade. 

Flowered taffetas and brocades in more delicate 


WALLS WITH APPLIED HANGINGS 137 


colours and designs took the place of damas rouge on 
eighteenth century walls, and the fashion of stripes 
later supplanted the old brocade designs. Toward the 
end of this century, fashionable people showed a pref- 
erence for wall hangings done in alternate bands of 
red, blue, and white, called ‘‘three-coloured damask.’’ 

The Empire under Napoleon I still continued the 
use of sumptuous materials on the walls. These were 
usually in vivid crimson, yellow, violet, and green satin, 
woven with characteristic Empire designs. 

Many beautiful brocades and heraldic hangings 
were made in Spain for the nobles, and such textiles 
found a ready employment on rough plaster walls 
(plate 607). A sort of ‘‘shaggy velvet’? was character- 
istic of the seventeenth century. In narrow strips of 
crimson splendour, it covered the walls of salons and 
state apartments. 


TOILE PEINTE 


The development of painted canvas as a wall 
decoration belongs especially to the seventeenth and 
the eighteenth centuries, although there are in exist- 
ence notable examples of the fifteenth century, which 
prove that toile pete was recognized as a decorative 
background in much earlier times. Chief among the 
important decorations of the fifteenth century is the 
series of ‘‘The Triumphs of Cesar’? in Hampton 
Court, painted by Mantegna in 1485 and supposed to 
have been intended for stage scenery. In Rheims is 
another large set of early painted canvases, the cele- 
brated toiles peintes of the Hotel Dieu, made, it is said, 


138 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


to serve as scenery for mystery plays and coronation 
ceremonies, and portraying Biblical scenes and saints. 

Toiles peintes are occasionally confused with tap- 
estry cartoons by those who have not gone carefully 
into the subject of historic wall decorations. As a 
matter of fact, they have nothing whatever to do with 
tapestry cartoons. They were purely and simply 
decorative canvases, usually painted on the spot for 
a certain room, and often done with stencils, in the 
manner of the early wall-papers. 

Certain ateliers specialized in the making of toile 
pete, just as others specialized in the making of 
wall-paper in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. 
A few artists became famous for their great skill in 
designing these painted canvases. The names of 
Olivier and Lacroix were specially to be noted in a 
recent exhibition of Provengal art in Marseilles, which 
contained a number of these charming old decorations. 

In the South of France, where, as we have said, 
little wood-panelling existed, wall surfaces were given 
a finish of plaster; the makers of toile peinte were 
then summoned to introduce colour and design. Flat 
on the walls they pasted pieces of canvas, and painted 
their decorations upon this ground in détrempe. Hach 
toile peinte was, therefore, a decoration made for a 
special setting, and done in place on the wall. It was 
never mounted on a chassis, or stretcher, like paint- 
ings done in oil. Usually a painted border of some 
sort completed the panel on all sides. 

Among the motifs that were favourites for these 
canvases were genre and landscape designs. A con- 





PLATE 607. DOORWAY IN SON VIDA, MALLORCA, LOOKING THROUGH THE 
PRINCIPAL DRAWING—ROOMS 


The walls are hung with gold and crimson brocade. The curtains are of cardinal red 
velvet. The valance board is of vermilion and gold 


Courtesy of William Lawrence Bottomley 


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WALLS WITH APPLIED HANGINGS 139 


ventional arrangement of a landscape, contained 
within a central medallion and finished with other 
medallions above and below, is sometimes found. At 
times, to be sure, toiles peintes were made in imitation 
of tapestries, and bore spirited paintings of ships or 
verdure subjects. Recently in Tours a delightful series 
was discovered with a foreground of rose-coloured 
hollyhocks and blue larkspur, among which wandered 
decorative birds, like herons; a lake in the middle 
ground; and a background of forest trees and blue sky. 

The salon with toile pemte in the Museo Correr in 
Venice has been immortalized by Walter Gay. 

Flemish and Dutch artists are known to have made 
a number of these decorations for English houses. 
They did not, however, produce so many as the artists 
of southern France, where toile peinte is the wall 
embellishment most commonly found. 

Old towes peintes are less expensive as a whole 
than other kinds of mural painting. They form a most 
desirable and decorative wall treatment, whenever 
they can be obtained. As yet they do not seem to have 
- Inspired a school of imitation, but there is no reason 
why modern decorative artists should not borrow the 
idea, which suggests many possibilities for our houses 
of to-day. 


PRINTED STUFFS FOR WALLS 


Best known and best loved among the printed stuffs 
used on walls are the toiles de Jouy of the eighteenth 
century, of which Oberkampf made the most distin- 
euished patterns. 


140 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


These towles may be said to be a direct result of the 
invasion of printed Indiennes from Oriental countries, 
because they were designed in the attempt to make 
something purely French in character that would re- 
place the foreign importations. 


No one of the different ‘‘manias’’ that have pos- 
sessed the world at various intervals is more intensely 
interesting that this passion for India prints, which 
grew to fever-heat with the arrival of the first incom- 
ing shipments by the Kast India Companies of France, 
England, and Holland. These cotton materials were 
cheap, colour-fast, and bewitching in design. They took 
Kurope by storm. They were worn by fashionable 
ladies as dresses and fichus and caps; the elegants 
among the gentlemen had waistcoats and handker- 
chiefs made from them. In houses, they were used for 
furniture coverings and hangings. Queen Mary of 
England approved of chintzes and ealicoes for walls, 
as well as for bed hangings and upholsteries. Occasion- 
ally the walls, window-curtains, and furniture-covers 
in a room were all alike, and of the same pattern. 

The silk and woolen and linen manufacturers of the 
different countries of Europe were alarmed by the 
effect which this mania had upon their products, and, 
as a result of their agitation, an embargo was placed 
upon the importation of India prints both in France 
and England. In France this embargo was not lifted 
until 1759; in England it continued until 1774. But in 
both countries, those who wanted Indiennes laughed 
at the laws. Printed cottons were smuggled into the 
country and all sorts of illicit trading in the forbidden 


WALLS WITH APPLIED HANGINGS 141 


materials went on without cessation, in spite of severe 
punishments imposed on those who dealt in the contra- 
band goods and on those who wore them. In 1720 the 
penalty for importing India cottons was death. At 
that time the plague was brought to Europe by these 
fabrics, but in spite of the law and in spite of the risk 
of using contaminated stuffs, the fashion persisted. 
Powerless in the face of general disregard of orders, 
the authorities were at last forced to abolish their 
attempts to establish the prohibition, and permission 
was finally given by the French government to manu- 
facture printed cottons and linens at home. Within 
thirty years a hundred successful factories were in 
operation in France. 


Of them all, the factory established at Jouy, near 
Versailles, by Christophe Philippe Oberkampf, became 
the most famous. His success was largely due to 
the variety of his designs, to the use of fast colours, 
and to the introduction of printing from engraved 
copper cylinders. The establishment numbered among 
its designers Huet and other famous artists of 
the day. 

Toiles de Jouy were usually printed in a single 
colour on a plain linen-coloured ground. Violet, rasp- 
berry-red, blue, green, puce, and brown were used for 
the designs. In some instances the printing was done 
in resist, so that the design appeared in white on a 
background of colour. 

All of the charming and fanciful pastoral scenes 
that were the delight of eighteenth century artists have 
been preserved in toiles de Jouy. Scenes from history 


142 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


and romance are also found among them, like the flight 
of the first balloon built by the Montgolfier brothers, 
the story of Jeanne d’Are, the great naval battles and 
‘“‘Napoleon in Kgypt.’’ Many of the larger designs 
form very decorative wall coverings. 

Where toile de Jouy or other textiles are applied 
in panel form, they are usually tacked to a frame that 
fits the space they are to occupy (plate 608). Occasion- 
ally the stuff is stretched continuously over the entire 
wall surface (plate 609). 

A favourite custom among decorators to-day is to 
use a combination of wall-paper and toile de Jouy in 
the same design and the same colouring for the decora- 
tion of a room. The walls are papered; the curtains 
and furniture coverings are made of the toile. At the 
ceiling line, a valance of the material often runs around 
the entire room, scalloped or pointed as desired, and 
bound in plain colour for relief. A treatment of this 
sort is specially successful in boudoirs and bedrooms 
and small dressing-rooms. 

The freshness and gaiety of toile de Jouy designs 
have much to do with their popularity. They have a 
character that combines a certain importance with 
a certain informality, which makes them easy to 
use, and invariably effective. Both wood and gray- 
painted furniture look well against the background 
they create. It is not surprising that they are once 
more claiming the place which they occupied in the 
eighteenth century. 

Some of the Liberty prints which are being made in 
India to-day are quite as effective on walls as the old 


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PLATE 611. CHINESE PAPER IN THE HOUSE OF HENRY D. SLEEPER, GLOUCESTER 
MASSACHUSETTS 


The shaped window and the red and gold carved Chinese balcony have been installed to express 
the spirit of the walis 


WALLS WITH APPLIED HANGINGS 143 


toile de Jouy patterns. Indeed, any figured chintz, cre- 
tonne, or linen may be used in this fashion if desired. 

The objection that such wall hangings are not 
sanitary has been partly overcome by the modern 
invention of the vacuum cleaner. Putting the fabrics 
on removable frames is another practical method, for 
it enables them to be taken down and cleaned without 
difficulty. Still a third method of preventing dust- 
catching is to shellac the entire surface of the stuff. 
This, of course, darkens the colours of the designs and 
gives the effect of painted canvas instead of the fresh- 
ness of prints. It does, however, close the pores of the 
material to dust, and creates a glazed surface that may 
be easily brushed off. 


PAINTED SILKS 


From China came the art of painting silk to use as 
wall hangings. The Chinese made for their own homes 
exquisite decorative panels to hang on festive occasions 
and roll away carefully when not in use. 

Finer than paper, more delicate than brocade, 
painted silk had the quality of a beautiful woven stuff 
still further enhanced by the hand of an artist. Close 
and heavy taffetas or satins were usually chosen to 
receive these decorations. 

Bed hangings and window draperies of these 
painted silks were sometimes used in the eighteenth 
century in France and England and Italy. Wall- 
panels, however, are more common. Their use in com- 
bination with stucco and decorative mural painting 
may be seen in plate 610. 


144 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


WALL-PAPER 
Wall-paper was first invented to take the place of 
the sumptuous textiles that have just been discussed 
in this chapter. It has imitated each one in turn. It has 
even been successfully substituted for stucco and tile, 
marble and bronze, draperies, laces, painting and statu- 
ary, frescoes, architectural carving and grained wood. 


Some of these paper imitations have been notable, 
and old rooms in which they are well used are veritable 
works of art. Through its various forms, wall-paper 
made distinguished backgrounds possible for people of 
limited wealth. No wonder that it earned for itself the 
title of ‘‘the tapestry of the poor’’! 

We find a few painted papers used as decorations 
before the invention of wood blocks, but the real his- 
tory of the art commences with the formation of the 
guild of the Dominotiers in France in 1586, and their 
first organized attempts to make ‘‘papers to up- 
holster walls.’’ As may easily be imagined, the earliest 
products were crude and naive. The simplest forms of 
geometrical patterns were cut on wood blocks, printed 
by hand on small sheets of paper, afterwards coloured 
with the aid of stencils, and sold in packets of twenty- 
five sheets. These grotesques and small figures were 
eagerly purchased by the peasants to decorate their 
fireplaces. Nobody thought of making a design that 
would match when the sheets were fitted together. 
From such simple beginnings our modern industry of 
wall-paper has been developed. 

In Venice and in other Italian cities there had been 
early attempts to make substitutes for costly Genoese 


WALLS WITH APPLIED HANGINGS 145 


velvets by applying chopped silk or wool to cloth. In 
the year 1620, just as the Mayflower was sailing to 
America, this process was essayed on paper by Le 
Francois, a native of Rouen, who had for some years 
been a maker of paper and sheaths for books. Wood 
blocks of his have been discovered bearing the dates 
1620 and 1630, cut in large Renaissance patterns that 
suggest Italian brocades. Le Francois printed his 
designs from these blocks, not with ink, but with a 
mordant, and scattered over them finely chopped wool, 
which adhered to the mordant and defined the pattern. 
The result was a paper which bore an extraordinary 
resemblance to velvet, and which was in great demand 
by the bourgeois of all countries, who wished to give 
to the walls of their houses the enviable sumptuous 
effects of the dwellings of the nobles. 

This same method was applied with admirable suc- 
cess to the reproduction of tapestries, and later, 
through the use of chopped silk instead of chopped 
wool, to the imitation of the finest silks made on the 
looms of Lyons. Such paper was stretched on canvased 
frames and set on the walls in panels, as if it had been 
one of the costly fabrics which it simulated. 


England was quick to copy this new wall covering, 
and we find in the London Patent Office in 1634 an ap- 
plication by Jerome Lanyer to perfect his invention of 
applying chopped wool to ‘‘linnen, cloath, silke, cotton, 
leather, and other substances.’’ England at the time 
was poor in paper, so Lanyer was probably unable to 
carry out his method on this particular substance for 
want of proper materials, It was not until a good fifty 


146 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


years later that English-made paper as strong as the 
paper of Holland existed in sufficient quantities to use 
as wall coverings. 

From that time on, England developed the tech- 
nique of flock papers to an amazing degree, while 
France seems to have neglected them until the middle of 
the eighteenth century, becoming more interested in the 
‘‘iluminated papers’’ of Papillon and his following. 


The name of Jean Papillon should be honoured as 
the father of wall-paper as we know it to-day, for he 
was the first to invent a repeating pattern that matched 
on all sides when it was put on the wall. Papillon was 
by trade a wood-engraver, and trained many other 
famous engravers in the art of making wood blocks 
for papers, among them Prieur, Jacques Chauvau, Le 
Sueur, Poilly, and his own small son, whose apprentice- 
ship began at the tender age of nine. From the few 
examples of the master’s work that are still extant, 
we can see that he was largely interested in the designs 
of the Oriental printed stuffs, or Indiennes, which the 
Kast India Companies were importing at the time. 

Papillon, like the old Dominotiers, printed his out- 
lines from wood blocks, and filled in all the colours by 
hand. The greatest difficulty for these early makers of 
wall-paper was to obtain colours that would not run 
when applied to paper. The only remedy which could 
be found for this trouble was to mix in glue or ox-gall 
as sizing. The process of colouring the designs by 
hand, with a stencil and a brush, was known as ‘‘illu- 
minating,’’ and it was not long before the illuminated 
papers of Papillon had become so popular in Paris 


WALLS WITH APPLIED HANGINGS 147 


that they were to be found in important rooms in all 
the great houses. By 1720 they were all the rage. 

There are no records to prove that Papillon at- 
tempted to develop the art of printing in colour from 
his wood blocks. Yet it is one of his apprentices, 
Jacques Chauvau, who in 1750 perfected the art of 
colour-printing from superimposed wood blocks; and 
another pupil, John Baptist Jackson, who inaugurated 
colour-printing in England from rolling presses of his 
own invention. 

Up to this time wall-papers were still printed on 
small sheets of paper, about sixteen inches by twelve 
inches. About 1760 an enterprising manufacturer con- 
ceived the idea of pasting these little sheets together 
before they were printed, thus eliminating the work of 
cutting off so many margins when the paper was put 
on the wall. Twenty-four sheets, glued end to end, 
were adopted as the standard length of a roll until 
‘endless paper’’ was invented by Louis Robert of 
Essones in 1799. 

Up to 1750, then, wall-paper passed through three 
definite stages—the first experimental stage, in the 
hands of the Dominotiers, between 1586 and 1660; the 
second stage, including papers made to imitate tapes- 
tries and woven stuffs, beginning with Le Francois in 
1620; and the third stage, inaugurated in 1688 by 
Papillon, producing illuminated papers that were 
largely in textile designs. 

Meantime a new development in the art of wall- 
paper had begun with the importation of Chinese hand- 
painted papers, brought as gifts by the ambassadors 


148 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


to the courts of Versailles and London, and presented 
as tokens of esteem to the great merchants of the vari- 
ous Kast India companies. 


Nothing formed a better background for the Ori- 
ental porcelains and lacquers so in favour during the 
time of Louis XIV and XV, William and Mary and 
Queen Anne, than these beautiful and exotic Chinese 
papers with their improbable designs of birds and 
flowers and landscapes. Both in England and France 
they were welcomed with open arms. The long delay 
necessary to fill orders in China inspired English and 
French craftsmen to attempt imitations, and resulted 
in many charming and whimsical designs, some of 
which were made by a combination of wood blocks and 
painting ; some by putting together Chinese prints, sent 
over for the purpose in small packets; and some, by 
importing minor Chinese artists to do the work en- 
tirely by hand. The paper in the blue alcove of the 
recently opened American Wing in the Metropolitan 
Museum is one of the products of this Oriental craze 
that swept over Kurope and even reached the shores 
of America. Robert Morris brought back to Philadel- 
phia a marvellous Chinese paper, and the one sent over 
by Commander Forbes of Boston is another notable 
example of the art. The Chinese paper from the King- 
Hooper mansion is also well known (plate 611). 

About the middle of the eighteenth century, Eing- 
land astonished the world by her production of flock 
papers, exporting them in great quantities to France, 
where they took their places in the palaces and even 
dethroned tapestries as a decoration, forcing people to 





PLATE 612. A SIMPLE ROOM WITH DECORATIVE BORDERS USED AT THE DOOR— AND 
WINDOW—TRIMS 
In the house of Joseph Urban, Yonkers, New York 





PLATE 613. DINING-—ROOM IN THE HOUSE OF SOLON C. KELLEY, DARIEN, CONNECTICUT 
The fireplace wall is panelled. ‘‘Scenic America” is used to paper the other walls. Leigh French, Jr., architect 





PLATE 614. FLORAL BORDERS USED TO FRAME THE PAPER PANELS IN A BEDROOM 
Residence of Mrs. William Hayward. Guy Lowell, architect 





G—ROOM IN THE HOUSE OF MRS. EDWARD S. MOORE 
ROSLYN, LONG ISLAND 


The decoration is made by two old painted window-shades applied to the 
walls in panels 





PLATE 615. DRESS 


WALLS WITH APPLIED HANGINGS 149 


relegate their magnificent Gobelins to storage. For 
twenty years or more these flock papers enjoyed an 
unprecedented vogue. By that time the fickle public 
was ready for something new, and the novelty was 


erie, 


the art of wall-paper. 


Reveillon was inspired to employ the fashionable_ 


mural painters and decorators to design paper panels 
to use in botserie rooms, and Huet, J. S. Fay, Cietti, 
Lavallée-Poussin, and Paget, who had been painting 
costly decorations on wood for salons and boudoirs, 
supplied him with the same sort of decorations to be 
executed on paper. The grace and elegance and charm 
of Reveillon’s papers have never been surpassed. 

It was in his factory that the French Revolution 
broke out, in 1789, the mob wrecking the factory and 
driving from the country the man who had conferred 
such notable distinction upon a humble art. 

In England, at about the same time, John Baptist 
Jackson was making his famous panels of Roman ruins 
and Venetian scenes. The natural sequence of these 
various attempts was the final great epoch of hand- 
blocked productions, the period of scenic papers, which 
covered the walls of a room with an arrested panorama 
of colour and action, without repetition. During this 
period the famous papers like Captain Cook, the Bay 
of Naples, the Monuments of Paris, Scenic America, 
the Horse Race, and Cupid and Psyche were produced. 
Dufour in Paris and Zuber in Alsace were the two 
great fabricants of scenic papers, whose vogue lasted 
throughout the Empire and as late as 1850. 


; 


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150 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


In 1850 Zuber brought back from Manchester, Eng- 
land, the first machine to print in colours, with 
cylinders around the circumference of a huge drum. 
A few years later nearly all wall-papers were printed 
by cylinder machines, and from that time until the 
present-day mechanical progress and advance have 
been constant. 

The first wall-papers in America were, naturally, 
imported from abroad. Packets of the small sheets of 
the Dominotiers’ papers were found in Boston in 1700, 
in the stocks of the booksellers and stationers. Home 
manufacture began, however, before the middle of that 
century, and in 1769 Plunket Fleeson of Philadelphia 
advertised ‘‘American paper hangings, manufactured 
in Philadelphia, not inferior to those generally im- 
ported, and as low in price.’’ The manufacture in this 
country seemed to have three distinct centres—Boston, 
Philadelphia, and Springfield, New Jersey. By 1800, 
there are twenty-three American manufacturers of 
wall-paper on record, their methods of production be- 
ing closely allied to those abroad. 

The first printing-press to print in colour was 
imported from England for the factory of John 
Howell in 1844; a second followed closely two years 
later, and the era of machine printing began in the 
new country. 


THE PROPER USE OF WALL-PAPER 


So closely does the development of wall-paper 
design and history follow architectural styles that it 
cannot be dissociated from them. This fact largely 














Photograph by Mattie Edwards Hewitt . 
“PLATE 616. OLD QUEEN ANNE ROOM PAINTED BLUE-GREEN WITH WALL-PAPER PANELS SET INTO THE WOODWORK 
In the house of Mrs. Louis Clarke. Decorations by Schmitt Bros. 


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WALLS WITH APPLIED HANGINGS 151 


controls the selection of wall-paper for rooms of any 
particular period. 

It is scarcely necessary to say that wall-paper with 
a distinct design is in itself a complete decoration for 
a wall, generally precluding the use of pictures in the 
room. Pictures should be kept for rooms that are 
unpapered; papered rooms should be pictureless. 
Mirrors, on the other hand, seem to find a proper place 
against wall-paper. 

As there are always exceptions to rules, there are 
three compromises in the case of combining pictures 
with wall-paper. 

1. Wall-paper borders may be used around a plain- 
coloured wall, on which pictures may be suitably and 
satisfactorily hung (plate 612). 

The Directoire and the Empire periods, and also 
the later days of Louis Philippe and Queen Victoria, 
saw many charming uses of the border that defined 
wall spaces, running along the edge of the ceiling, and 
at the top of the dado, sometimes around window 
frames and corner spaces. These borders were sturdy 
in design and vigorous in colour. They are eminently 
suitable to use in bedrooms and hallways to-day, with 
the field of the wall papered in a plain colour or tinted 
in a tone that harmonizes or contrasts with the design. 
Since there is no pattern on the wall except around the 
edges, it is perfectly possible to hang paintings on the 
plain field, and very well indeed they look, framed in 
by the border-lines of colour. 

2. When wall-paper is panelled into wood rooms, 
so that wood panels alternate with decorative panels 


152 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


of paper, pictures may be hung on the wood-panelling, 
and mirrors against the paper panels. 

Hither the pictures or the paper, however, must 
be subordinated in the general scheme, and great care 
should be exercised in selecting the right sort of 
pictures to harmonize with the general atmosphere 
created by the paper. 

3. All-over papers with small designs, like polka- 
dots, or the chintz papers of England, may be used as 
a background for pictures that are bold enough to hang 
on them without being negatived by the background, or 
simple enough in design not to confuse the eye. 

In general, however, as we have already said, it is 
wiser and happier to keep a definite line of demarca- 
tion between the use of paper and the use of pictures. 

Three problems always present themselves when 
wall-paper is to be selected for any room—the ques- 
tions of colour and pattern and scale. 

Colour will be governed largely by the exposure of 
the room, its purpose, and the adjuncts already at 
hand to use in this particular place. 

One would scarcely choose, for example, for a room 
with northern exposure, a cold grey or a cold blue 
paper. One would not select a paper with dark- 
coloured ground for a bedroom that may be rendered 
gloomy and uninviting by such a decoration. 

Pattern and scale must accord with the size of the 
room and the height of the ceiling, as well as the uses 
to which the room is to be put. A pin-dot design on a 
wall that is fifteen feet high will be absurdly uncon- 
vincing, although it suits a small bedroom, or a nur- 


WALLS WITH APPLIED HANGINGS 153 


sery, or a little hallway. On the other hand, one of 
the large Chinese designs with birds and flowers, 
heavy in colour, will never be effective in too small a 
room, where you cannot get further than a few feet 
away from the pattern. 

The whole secret of the successful use of wall-paper 
lies in the ability to choose the proper design and 
colour and to apply the paper in an interesting 
manner that corresponds to the architectural require- 
ments of the room. 

Until recently, wall-paper has invariably been used 
in a stupid and unimaginative fashion. It has been 
spread over the wall without a break, and small 
thought has been given to the colour of the woodwork 
which might complement and enhance it. 

Of late, however, there has grown up some compre- 
hension of the possibility of panelling with paper, in 
the same fashion in which panelling is done with paint- 
ings. It is important to understand the fact that a 
partially papered room is sometimes more interesting 
than one which is wholly papered. 

Even more significant than usual is the question of 
design in a paper which is to be employed in this 
fashion. A negative or characterless paper, or a paper 
with meaningless repetitions does not make good 
panelling on a wall. There must be a distinctly deco- 
rative pattern, with movement and rhythm and colour, 
in order to have a paper suitable for division into 
panel forms. Perhaps the papers that are imitations 
of old painted silks are best adapted to this use 
(plate 616). 


154 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


Such panels may be finished around the edges with 
one of the little printed borders that now come in good 
architectural designs. The plain wall-panels which 
intervene may be bordered in the same fashion, instead 
of being outlined with mouldings in relief. 

Panelling with paper must be planned as carefully 
as panelling with wood. Good architectural effects 
may be obtained by using wall-paper cornices and 
printed or painted pilasters in combination with such 
panels, which will add greatly to their importance and 
create a real wall decoration from the humblest sort of 
material (plate 620). 

‘‘Lacquering’’ or shellacking such papers is 
another way of adding to their richness of tone and 
importance of effect. A good design given a coat of 
size and then a coat of shellac often becomes lacquer- 
like in quality. But wherever a feeling of crispness or 
freshness is desired, shellac should not be used. 

There is to-day a paper suitable for every room 
in the house—from glazed tile papers for kitchen 
and bathroom to chintz papers for bedrooms and 
scenic papers for hallways and dining-rooms. There 
is practically every sort of period design in wall- 
paper, from Tudor days down. A wall-paper that 
does not fit harmoniously into its surroundings has 
no excuse. 

But unfortunately there are still good and bad wall- 
paper designs, and selection must be made with care 
and judgment. Nothing can be more satisfactory than 
a wall-paper well chosen. Nothing can produce more 
disturbance and unrest than an ill-advised choice. Like 





PLATE 618. THE “THREE MUSKETEERS a PAPER IN THE DINING-ROOM OF MRS. GEORGE B. HEDGES, WESTBURY, LONG ISLAND 
The woodwork of the room was especially constructed to accord with the paper 
Nancy McClelland, Inc., decorator 


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WoOU NAdGYVD V NI Gusn dadVd 


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WALLS WITH APPLIED HANGINGS 155 


upholstery fabrics and carpets, wall-paper should 
always have a ‘‘try-out’’ in a room before being 
finally adopted. 

There are people whose whole lives have been 
haunted by the memory of some atrocious paper with 
which they were forced to live in their early days. 
A gentleman from Bar Harbor has such vivid and 
excruciating recollections of a hallway papered with 
a design of huge poppies, each flower about two feet 
in diameter, that he cannot to-day bear even to hear 
the suggestion of wall-paper for a room in his house! 
An invalid who for some time lived in a room with 
insistent striped wall-paper developed the feeling of 
being behind the bars of a cage until it became almost 
a mania. 

These instances carry their lessons with them. 
Wall-paper has to be lived with either in active 
enjoyment or in total unconsciousness in order to be 
a successful decoration. As in the case of decorative 
paintings, daring designs and treatments may be car- 
ried out with paper in occasional small rooms, hall- 
ways, bathrooms, dressing-rooms, etc., but from the 
rooms in which we spend most of our time such eccen- 
tricities are barred. Here we must have repose, 
harmony, cheerfulness, and a general sense of well- 
being. Wall-paper can furnish all these qualities when 
properly chosen. 

Plain papers, painted by hand, now come in all 
sorts of beautiful colours. Since they are done in 
tempera, they have a depth of texture which is not 
given by a painted wall. The cost of papering a room 


156 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


with plain paper is approximately one third of the 
cost of applying three coats of paint. 


COLONIAL PAPERS 


Excellent reproductions are now being made by 
Strahan, Birge, Diament, and Zuber of old designs 
found in the homes of our forefathers, notably in New 
England districts. Many of these papers are in tones 
of grey. Some of them have small landscape medal- 
lions in colour. They are suitable and practical for 
halls, dining-rooms, and bedrooms in an early Ameri- 
can setting. 

ALL-OVER DESIGNS 


Many wall-papers are made with small designs 
sprinkled over them—too small to be easily distin- 
guished and ‘‘counted’’ if one is confined by illness to 
a room where they exist. These papers belong in the 
class generally referred to as background papers, and 
are possible to use in rooms where pictures will be 
hung. They are often very charming when combined 
with wall-paper borders. 


MARBLED PAPERS 


If the effect of a marble wall is desired, it may be 
easily obtained by using one of the marbleized papers 
which now come in tones of grey, green, rose, and 
apricot. When applied to the wall and varnished, they 
give almost exactly the illusion of the cold, hard 
material which they represent. Excellent results may 
sometimes be obtained by combining two colours of 


WALLS WITH APPLIED HANGINGS 157 


marbled paper, using one for the dado and making 

panels or slabs above the dado, in the other colour. 
These marbled papers may also be cut and applied 

in Directoire designs of lozenges, squares, and circles. 


ARCHITECTURAL PAPERS 


A few good borders exist in architectural designs, 
imitating carved cornices and mouldings. The person 
who knows how to use these cleverly will be able to 
give a room all the character that is afforded by care- 
fully worked out architectural details. 

Some very interesting things have been done by 
combining these borders in squares and rectangles on 
ceilings, where they produce the effect of old painted 
ceilings, which may be Italian or English in character. 


GOLD AND SILVER PAPERS 


Often a very beautiful background for a room may 
be gained by the use of the gold and silver papers that 
come in large sheets with or without small stamped 
designs. It is a well-known fact that a great deal of 
gold in a room is restful and quiet, while small quanti- 
ties of it may prove disturbing. 

The usual method of applying these papers is to 
cut them into squares measuring a foot or a little more 
and to turn them so that the squares meet each other 
with the grain of the paper running in opposite direc- 
tions. This gives a play of light which is subtle and 
attractive. When gold or silver is used on the walls, 
the ceiling should be papered to match. 

There will be practically no woodwork in a room 


158 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


of this sort. The paper should run to the floor and 
over the baseboard: the trims of doors and windows 
will be the only woodwork that shows. In a silver 
room this woodwork may be painted apple-green; in a 
gold room a touch of orange or lacquer-red will en- 
hance the walls. 

Gold and silver papers are background papers and 
various decorations may be hung upon them. 


FLORAL PAPERS 

To turn a room into a garden by covering the walls 
with flowers is one of the most charming things that 
can be done for a bedroom. 

The chintz papers that are copies of old English 
designs are nearly all floral papers. They give to the 
walls of a room the effect of being covered with printed 
chintz. The woodwork in such rooms may be painted 
any colour that occurs in the flowers, and the hang- 
ings, of course, should accord with it in tone. Floral 
papers allow the use of many different colours in the 
same room. 

TEA-BOX PAPERS 

The papers with small designs that were originally 
used to wrap Chinese tea boxes, though not intended 
originally for wall-papers, may often be used very 
satisfactorily on the walls of a small-sized room. For 
bathrooms, foyers, and entrance halls they are very 
charming, the small sheets fitting together to make a 
complete wall covering. The same thing is true of the 
Italian papers made like the Domino papers and origi- 
nally used for lining book covers. 








PLATE 620. A PANEL OF THE SCENIC PAPER ANTENOR, USED AS A TAPESTRY 
Dining-room of Mrs. E. Van R. Thayer, New York 





PLATE 621. THE CUPID AND PSYCHE PAPER USED AS PANELS IN A WOOD ROOM 
House of H. P. Davison, Long Island. Decorations by Lenygon 





PLATE 622. OLD PAINTED PAPER SET IN PANELS IN THE WALL 


Dining-room in the house of Mrs. Ernest Iselin, New York ; 
Maurice Fatio, architect. Decorations by Nancy McClelland, Inc. 


WALLS WITH APPLIED HANGINGS 159 


CHINESE PAPERS 


Old Chinese painted papers or their reproductions, 
eovered with birds and flowers and bamboos or done in 
landscape designs, make fine backgrounds for English 
rooms and for a certain type of French room. These 
papers usually come in strips which are very high and 
wide. They are meant to use without dadoes and with 
the simplest possible wood trim. The idea is to keep 
the wall as unbroken.as possible; for this reason such 
panels are not entirely successful in rooms that have 
too many windows and doors. But wherever unbroken 
wall-spaces exist, Chinese papers find: their place 
admirably. 

In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, such 
papers were considered fitting backgrounds for rooms 
that contained beautiful lacquers and porcelains from 
the Hast. They have never lost this quality of Oriental 
richness. Hiven the modern reproductions have a depth 
and beauty of colour that is admirable. 


SCENIC PAPERS 


In a dining-room or hall, or in any room where 
there is a comparatively small amount of furniture, 
scenic papers will do for the walls what no other kind 
of paper can accomplish. They carry the design around 
in an unbroken panorama which is most pleasing to 
the eye. They add colour and life and gaiety and 
perspective to the room. They are a sort of arrested 
‘‘movie,’’ which affords interest and delight (plates 
617-619). 

These scenic papers should always be used above 


160 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


a dado so that they may be lifted above the line of 
chairs and tables and have their design hidden as little 
as possible. Abroad they were often composed by 
means of putting several strips together in panels (as 
in plates 620-622), in this country the method of using 
them was generally to run them entirely around the 
wall without separation or division. 

Wherever an old scenic paper can be found to use 
in a suitable room, the decoration of the room is 
assured. A few of the old designs are still printed 
to-day from the original hand blocks and these papers 
give much the same effect as the old ones, although 
they are lacking a little in the softness of tone which 
time alone can give. 

It is only necessary to cast a glance over photo- 
graphs of the old New England houses to see how suc- 
cessfully scenic papers were used in Colonial days. 
The same effects are possible to obtain in modern 
country dwellings built along Colonial lines. 

Instead of using mouldings to frame in scenic 
papers it is often an excellent plan to frame them with 
paper borders in a decorative design. 

Great care should be taken with the installation of 
an old scenic paper. On a hard plaster wall which is 
perfectly dry, canvas may be pasted over the surface 
and covered with lining paper before applying the 
picture paper. If there is any question of dampness, 
it is wiser to mount the panels on stretchers, so that 
there will always be an air space between the wall and 
the paper, thus avoiding any possibility of damage 
from humidity. 


WALLS WITH APPLIED HANGINGS 161 


SANITARY PAPERS 


The many papers now made to represent tile and 
finished with a heavy glaze are very satisfactory to use 
in bathrooms and kitchens because the surface can be 
wiped off without damaging the design. In fact these 
papers, when carefully applied to walls, take the place 
of tiles. 








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PLATE VI. THE BLUE DINING-ROOM 
DECORATED BY BASIL IONIDES 


From a Painting by W. B. E. Ranken 
Reproduced in Home and Gardens, London, and 
“Colour and Interior Decorations’? by Basil Ionides 


By Courtesy of Home and Gardens, and Basil Ionides 





PLATE VI. THE BLUE DINING—~ROOM 
From a painting by W. B. E. Ranken 
Courtesy of House and Garden, London 








CHAPTER VII 
WOOD-PANELLING 


OOD-PANELLING may be considered an 
W outstanding exception to the rule of back- 
ground or decoration, which was stated in 
the first chapter of this book. Here is a wall treatment 
that seems to be capable of adequately performing 
both functions at one and the same time, without vio- 
lating the canons of art. It can furnish the whole 
decorative scheme of a room and simultaneously play 
the role of a flattering and unassuming background 
for whatever is placed against it. Tapestries, brocades, 
paintings, old gilt frames, flowers, and books never look 
better than when they have the subtle and mellow tones 
of wood as a foil and a fond. 

The usefulness of a wood-lining for interior walls 
consists largely in preserving a room from dampness, 
and in producing a warm, hospitable appearance. Its 
beauty lies in the colour and texture of the natural 
wood, in the pleasant lines and proportions of the 
panel divisions and shapes, in the rhythm they create, 
and in the carvings and mouldings with which they are 
enriched. The adaptability of wood-panelling to every 
form of interior is self-evident, for it has been suitably 
used in the simplest New England farm-houses, as 
well as in the richest and most palatial dwellings in the 
world. It has strength, dignity, and distinction. 

In fact, wood is one of the noblest coverings we can 

165 


166 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


give to our walls. It makes a beautiful, restful inte- 
rior, wholly satisfying and happy to live with. 


THE COMPONENT PARTS OF PANELLING 


If the woodwork that has come down to us from 
the past be carefully studied, it is immediately appar- 
ent that there are three divisions of the wall between 
floor and ceiling—the dado, or wainscoting; the panels 
above this, which form what is called the ‘‘field’’ of 
the wall; and the top member, consisting of a cornice 
and frieze, or a cornice alone. Upon the fine adjust- 
ment of these three parts to the proportions and shape 
of a room, largely depends the quality of beauty of 
a panelling. 

These three divisions of a wall correspond in char- 
acter to the different parts of a classic order, or 
column. The dado takes the place of a continuous 
pedestal; the lines of panelling in the field correspond 
to the shaft; the cornice and frieze are equivalent to 
the capital and its entablature. The correct proportion 
of each part bears the same relation to the height of 
the ceiling that is characteristic of an order. 

Louis XVI panelling, for example, which is based 
upon the Corinthian order, is governed by the laws 
regulating the various proportions of a Corinthian 
column, taking as its fixed height the measure from 
floor to ceiling of the room which the panelling occupies. 

Windows and doors and other openings that occur 
in such panelling may be regarded as intercolumnia- 
tions, when they are properly completed by having 
their lines carried up to the cornice. A clear under- 


WOOD-PANELLING 167 


standing of this basic rule of proportion is the key to 
all good panelling. 

It is easy to see that, in order to be successfully 
carried out, the construction and installation of a 
wood room is a problem that must be entrusted to a 
highly experienced person with profound architec- 
tural knowledge. 

The panelling of plaster walls with picture-mould- 
ings (see Chapter IX) is an attempt to imitate the 
effect of a wood room in a less costly manner. It 
should, therefore, be controlled by the same laws that 
govern wood-panelled rooms. Hit-or-miss ‘‘panelling,”’ 
with mouldings tacked on the walls simply to divide 
up the surface in some way, is not worthy of the name. 

There will be great pleasure and satisfaction to the 
owner of a wood room in knowing something about the 
component parts of his panelling, so we shall examine 
first the dado, then the field of the wall, the cornice, 
and the openings consecutively. 


THE DADO 


The dado or wainscoting was originally used, as we 
have already noted, on walls that were not wood-pan- 
elled, but embellished with other forms of mural deco- 
ration. In such cases it served to lift the decoration 
above the height of the furniture, and also to protect 
the wall from disfigurement by passing people or by 
displaced furniture. It even served as a permanent 
and ornamental back to many seats and benches which 
were made without backs and ranged along the wall. 
Wainscoting, then, was both ornamental and necessary. 


168 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


When wood-panelling came into general use in 
France, England, and America, the wainscot was re- 
tained as the base of the panelling. The proportions 
of the rooms fixed its height at about thirty or 
thirty-six inches, so that it equalled all but the tallest 
pieces of furniture. The French, however, studied the 
matter more thoroughly. The height of the room was 
computed so that the ‘‘chair-rail’’ (the moulding which 
finishes the dado at the top) should be in line with the 
height of the tablet of the mantel-piece, or with the 
height of the fireplace opening. This line was also 
made to accord with the height of one of the principal 
divisions of the lower door-panels. From this simple 
rule sprang perfect harmony and balance, and the 
continuity of line which is one of the great charms of 
old rooms. Note how the principle is carried out in all 
the French rooms and many of the English and 
American constructions. 


The dado may be panelled horizontally or verti- 
cally, to make a pleasing combination with the panels on 
the wall field. In cheap panelling, this effect is ob- 
tained by applied mouldings, but in all good wood- 
work, which is composed of three or more layers of 
wood placed in such a way that the grain of each layer 
runs in an opposite direction, to furnish strength and 
allow ‘‘play,’’ the panels will be recessed or ‘‘fielded’’ 
(raised), and finished around the edges with a suit- 
able moulding. 

At the top, the dado should be completed by a 
moulding that is heavier in scale and of greater pro- 
jection than the panel mouldings, since it defines and 


WOOD-PANELLING 169 


limits a division of the wall. At the bottom, the dado 
ends in the baseboard or ‘‘mopboard.”’ 


THE FIELD OF THE WALL 


The panels of the field of the wall depend for inter- 
est on their shapes and sizes and on the richness or 
simplicity of the mouldings which surround them. 
Since no two rooms are exactly alike in proportion, no 
two designs for panellings will be exactly alike. Hach 
must be an individual creation, governed entirely by 
the space which it is to fill. The key to all dimensions, 
as we have said, will be the height of the ceiling. 

By careful study, panelling may be induced to give 
a room the effect of almost any desired proportion. 
A very high room can be lowered by employing a frieze 
below the cornice; and by accenting the width of wall- 
panels instead of their height (plate 700). A low room 
may be given height by the use of pilasters, and by 
employing tall, narrow panel divisions, which accent 
the vertical lines. 

The distribution of panels is a very subtle matter— 
to attain distinction and interest within the limitations 
of fixed spaces is never a small achievement. 

No less important than the size of the panels them- 
selves is the width of the plain ‘‘rails’’ above and 
below them, and the plain ‘‘stiles’’ on each side. 

Stiles and rails are to a panel what a frame is to a 
picture, and they must be properly proportioned in 
order to show the true value of the object which they 
enclose. If the stiles are too narrow, not enough space 
will exist between panels and they will look crowded 


170 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


together. If too wide, the stiles will be clumsy and 
awkward, and attract attention to themselves instead 
of to what is contained within their framing lines. In 
other words, the ‘‘frame’’ will over-balance the 
‘‘nicture.’? In the various illustrations of wood-panel- 
ling shown here, modern and antique, the stiles vary 
between one fifth and one ninth of the width of the 
largest panels in the room, as contained inside the 
mouldings. The rails are usually, but not invariably, 
of equal width with the stiles, as in the case of a 
picture-frame. 


FORMS OF PANELLING 


The simplest method of covering walls with wood 
can scarcely be called panelling. It consists of sheath- 
ing with vertical matched boards, as in plate 701, with- 
out consideration of any wall divisions. This was 
originally called ‘‘seeling.’’ 

Following this came the use of small repeating 
panels of uniform measurement, greatly favoured in 
Kingland in Tudor and Stuart days, and very popular 
here in America for early rooms like that in plate 702. 

This repetition of small square or oblong blocks of 
wood in an unvarying form from the floor upward, to 
cover the greatest part of the wall surface, does not in 
any way depend upon the proportions of an order. It 
was done before the highest principles of wood-pan- 
elling had been realized or formulated. It was merely 
a gesture, still undirected, to obtain a decorative effect 
with wood walls. Such little panels become monoto- 
nous to the extreme when employed on large surfaces, 








Photograph by Mattie Edwards Hewitt 
PLATE 700. ENGLISH PINE ROOM IN THE HOUSE OF BERTRAM G. WORK, OYSTER BAY 


Width of panels accented to balance height of ceiling 
Delano & Aldrich, architects 





THE HOUSE OF S. C. KELLEY, 





PLATE 701. FIREPLACE WALL SHEATHED WITH PINE BOARDING, I 
DARIEN, CONNECTICUT 


Leigh French, Jr., architect 





PLATE 702. STUART PANELLING WITH CARVED FRIEZE AND CORNICE, IN THE 
HOUSE OF J. E. BERWIND, BRIDGEHAMPTON, LONG ISLAND 


An order is introduced beside the fireplace. Installation by Lenygon 





PLATE 703. GOTHIC OAK—-PANELLED ROOM FROM BOUGHTON MALHERBE 
MANOR HOUSE, KENT 
Parchemin panels set. in plain stiles and rails 


Courtesy of Charles of London 


WOOD-PANELLING 171 


but they have certain pleasing qualities for small low 
rooms in their simplicity and unpretentiousness. By 
means of carving, they were often enriched and elabo- 
rated, as in the old oak room of Boughton Malherbe 
Manor House (plate 703). 

The plan of repeating a panel form was used later 
in a much more interesting fashion when elongated 
panels of large dimensions were made to follow each 
other in a restful and pleasant rhythm around the 
walls of a room. Such a treatment may be seen in 
plate 704. 

The effect gained by insistence on the recurrence of 
a pleasing motif is generally recognized in the com- 
position of large groups and masses. It holds good on 
the stage, in music, and in painting, and is just as 
inevitably true in the panelling of our houses as it is 
in other forms of art. When this plan is followed with 
panels of considerable dimension, the size of the unit 
that is to be repeated will be governed by the width 
and height of the average wall-space in the room. 

The alternate plan to repeating panels of the same 
size is, naturally, that of combining panels of varying 
heights and widths. This treatment is capable of infi- 
nite diversity. Whatever is pleasing and satisfying to 
the eye is allowable, provided the different units are so 
skilfully grouped that they do not create an effect of 
confusion and distraction. 

In the old American room from the Coggeswell 
House (plate 705) twelve different sizes and shapes of 
panels are seen side by side on the same wall, yet there 
is no sense of interruption of the composition, because 


172 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


the weight of lines that run in opposite directions is 
carefully balanced. The Essex craftsman who built 
this panelling in 1723 used ingenuity and no little 
cleverness in adapting his design. 

On the other hand, variations of wholly vertical 
panels without horizontal accent are sometimes em- 
ployed to make interesting compositions. 

English and French and the best of our American- 
made wood-panelling relied upon such combinations 
of form to produce richness of effect and balanced 
interest. 

In England, wood ‘‘wainscotings,’’ as they were 
called, were seldom used in Gothic times. The Tudor 
period favoured an arrangement of small rectangular 
wood panels which almost wholly covered the walls. 
Late in this period, with the Renaissance tendencies 
that were precursory to Inigo Jones, carving and fluted 
pilasters were introduced into weedy as the begin- 
ning of formal tendencies. 

With ‘‘the English Palladio’’ and his classic re- 
vival, came a realization of the possibility of applying 
the rules of an order to the wall. It was accordingly 
divided into dado, field, and cornice, and covered with 
oblong panels of wood, which were sometimes three or 
four feet wide and correspondingly high (plate 700). 
There was usually one tier of large panels above the 
dado rail and a small row of horizontal panels below 
it: in rooms over ten feet high, a second tier of panels 
was used above the dado rail. Mouldings were usually 
plain. Carving the architraves of doors and the over- 
door and over-mantel panels added richness to the 





PLATE 704. PINE LIVING-ROOM IN THE HOUSE OF MRS. EDWARD S. MOORE 
ROSLYN, LONG ISLAND 
Repeating panels with smaller panels below the cornice 
John Cross, architect 





PLATE 705. EARLY AMERICAN PANELLED ROOM 
FROM THE COGGESWELL HOUSE, ESSEX 
MASSACHUSETTS, BUILT IN 1723 
Panelling painted sage-green, brick floor 
Courtesy of Henry D. Sleeper 





PLATE 706. PINE LIVING—ROOM IN 18TH CENTURY ENGLISH STYLE, IN THE 
APARTMENT OF MRS. CORNELIUS N. BLISS, NEW YORK 
Designed and installed by Elsie Cobb Wilson, Inc. 





PLATE 707. AN ENGLISH OAK-—PANELLED ROOM WHICH IS A DIGNIFIED 


INTERPRETATION OF THE BEST WORK OF CHRISTOPHER WREN 


The dark-green marble mantel was designed in keeping. Dining-room in the residence of 
J. E. Berwind, Bridgehampton, Long Island 


Panelling by Lenygon 


PLATE 708. 


PLATE 709. 


| 
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il 





PANELLING IN THE STYLE OF WILLIAM KENT, WITH BOOK CUPBOARDS 


AND CARVED OVER-—MANTEL 
Courtesy of Arthur Vernay 


PANELLED ROOM IN THE HOUSE OF J. F. BERMINGHAM, EAST 


James W. O’Connor, architect and decorator 
Courtesy of House and Garden 





NORWICH 


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PLATE 710. DRAWING—-ROOM IN THE TOWN HOUSE OF WILLIAM LAWRENCE BOTTOMLEY 


The wood is painted beige colour to form a background for the more brilliant coloursin the room. The 
door-curtains are antique Granada canary-colored damask trimmed with terra cotta and bands of tan and black 
The arm-chair is upholstered in salmon-coloured damask 


Courtesy of William Lawrence Bottomley 


WOOD-PANELLING 173 


room. When Isaac Ware wrote the ‘‘Complete Body 
of Architecture’’ in 1756, he recommended panelling 
a room with wood by alternating wide oblong and 
narrow pilaster panels, using ovolo mouldings. He 
added: ‘‘When the shape of a room and the neces- 
sary use of the principal panel in a side has occasioned 
there should be two very narrow ones, nothing 
gives greater beauty than the dropping down each a 
long festoon.’’ 

The wide panels of this period were used as em- 
placements for pictures or mirrors. 

Great richness of ornament was introduced into the 
rooms designed by Christopher Wren through the 
carvings of Grinling Gibbons, and this custom gradu- 
ally led to the use of fir, commonly known as deal, in 
place of oak, since it was less expensive and more 
easily carved. This soft wood soon entirely super- 
seded other woods for painted rooms. 

Early Georgian panelling employed recessed panels 
with simple ornament in classic detail (plates 706-710). 

In France, as in England, the earliest wood panels 
were small in scale (plate 711). Under Louis XIII 
they developed into large divisions with bold mould- 
ings. Louis XIV styles applied formal pilasters, 
cornices, and richly ornamented mouldings to wood- 
panelling, using large and well-defined divisions of 
the wall, which were necessary in apartments of 
the size and grandeur that characterized the epoch _ 
(Chapter IT). 

Louis XV panelling was usually very tall, extend- 
ing from dado to cornice in alternating wide and 


174 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


narrow strips, which were always symmetrically bal- 
anced in spite of the irregularities of ornament. These 
panels generally had curved tops and sometimes cury- 
ing sides. Often the only straight lines in the room 
were the top of the dado and the top of the cornice. 
Mouldings were not so bold as Louis XIV mouldings, 
and much slighter in projection (plates 712 and 7138). 

The simpler forms of Louis XV panelling are well 
adapted in their proportions to our modern American 
rooms (plate 714). 

The fantasies of the Louis XV period gave way 
to the classic regularity of Louis XVI panelling, which 
was divided into rectangles, in broad and narrow 
shapes, sometimes with reéntrant corner angles filled 
with small rosettes (plate 715). The well-proportioned 
dado relieved the vertical emphasis of such rooms. 

An example of beautiful proportion in panelling, 
and a delightful suggestion for a combination of hori- 
zontal and vertical forms may be seen in plates 716 and 
718, in the illustration of the boudoir of Marie Antoi- 
nette in the Petit Trianon. 


PARTIALLY PANELLED ROOMS 


Occasionally, especially in old American houses, we 
find one wall of a room treated with wood-panelling, 
while the others are plastered and tinted, or covered 
with wall-paper. In such cases the fireplace wall is 
usually selected for a wood covering, being the most 
important spot in the room (plate 218). Often it is 
completed with niches, or cupboards placed either in 
the wall or in the corners. This was not a habit peculiar 





PLATE 711. FRENCH GOTHIC PANELLED ROOM FROM A KNIGHTS TEMPLAR MONASTERY NEAR BORDEAUX 


The carved frieze which has been added to the room came from the North of Spain 
Courtesy of Miss C. M. Traver 


AONAAV HLIAIT $16 JO NOIVS AHL NI FIWASIO’ AX SINOT ‘OIL ALVId 
WMI Spreapy smew Aq ydersojioyd 


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LOUIS XV BOISERIE 








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CHATEAU OF VERSAILLES 





PLATE 714. SIMPLE LOUIS XV BOISERIE PAINTED BLUE-GREEN, WITH 
MOULDINGS OUTLINED IN OCHRE 


One of the simplest forms of the period and easily adaptable to modern American rooms 
Courtesy of Mrs. J. D. Lyon 





PLATE 715. ADAPTATION OF SIMPLE LOUIS XVI PANELLING IN THE 
OFFICE OF LEIGH FRENCH, JR., ARCHITECT 








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PLATE 716. CARVED AND GILT PANELLING IN THE BOUDOIR OF MARIE ANTOINETTE IN 
THE PETIT TRIANON, VERSAILLES 
From “Art Architectural en France” 


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WOOD-PANELLING 175 


to our country alone. It is also exemplified in the 
Dutch room in plate 3805. Many Queen Anne rooms, as 
well, were panelled on one or both of the inner walls, 
the remaining walls being plastered. 

Certainly more economical than sheathing the en- 
tire wall, this disposition of wood yet gave in a way the 
effect of a panelled room when the other wall surfaces 
were suitably treated with chintz, paintings, tapestries, 
or wall-paper, or such decorative hangings as the colo- 
nists happened to have. It was not a fashion to be 
approved of unqualifiedly by France, where a room 
was considered as a unit and the four walls were 
usually uniformly treated. But this custom of our 
ancestors may be adopted with good precedent in 
simple and unpretentious dwellings and in rooms 
where we wish to create the atmosphere of early 
Colonial days. 

CORNICES 

The third component part of panelling to be con- 
sidered, after the dado and the field, is the moulding 
or group of mouldings which composes the cornice. 
This completes the wall and forms the link with the 
ceiling. No one member of the panelling is more im- 
portant, and none should be more carefully designed. 

In modern rooms, particularly in apartment houses, 
the cornice is often omitted, and in its place is put a 
‘¢nicture moulding,’’ which brings certain disastrous 
features in its train, because it necessitates long lines 
of cords or wires stretching to the height of the ceil- 
ing, which are never in themselves a decorative device. 
But what is most unfortunate is the fact that the 


176 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


‘‘picture moulding’’ is seldom important enough to 
give the impression of finishing the wall or furnishing 
a support for the ceiling. 

There are few cases where a room is better without 
than: with a cornice. In most instances, the omission 
creates an effect of weakness and incompletion. A 
coved ceiling should spring directly from the wall, it is 
true, since it is designed to give height to a room, and 
a heavy projecting cornice below it will nullify this 
effect. And a Tudor panelling does not necessitate a 
cornice at the junction of the wall and ceiling, although 
it usually ends in an important moulding which serves 
as a cornice to the woodwork. 

But a panelled ceiling, and in fact the majority of 
ceilings, with the exception of those which are vaulted 
and supported upon corbels, are not properly held up 
unless there is a cornice of decided projection. 

Like other members of a panelled room, the cornice 
has changed its form with successive developments of 
style. In Renaissance days in England, it was in bold 
plaster relief, consisting of designs of laurel, flowers, 
and fruit. In the late seventeenth century it became 
an elaborately carved wooden structure, which re- 
peated the designs of the wall panels. Under the 
Adam brothers it flattened out into low projection, 
with refined and delicate classic designs executed in 
plaster. With the cornice of this period a frieze was 
usually employed. In early Georgian days, cornices 
and friezes were accurately designed in classic forms. 
The dentillated cornice is characteristic of this period. 

Freneh cornices followed much the same lines of 


WOOD-PANELLING 177 


development. In Louis XV rooms they were often 
carried up in a curve which extended over the ceiling, 
and are as frequently found in plaster as in wood 
(plate 713). 


While a frieze is not always necessary in a wood- 
panelled room—it should be definitely avoided in all 
low rooms—the cornice is a requisite of every good 
panelling. Its height averages an inch to every foot 
in the height of the room. There is no objection to 
having it made in plaster and finished like wood, if 
this proves to be less expensive. (See Chapter V.) In 
lofty rooms, the frieze will be found a useful device to 
lower the height of the ceiling. It then serves as an 
entablature to the cornice. 

If a picture-moulding must be used, it should be 
placed directly below the cornice moulding in a room 
where there is no frieze. In case of a frieze, the lower 
member is usually the picture-moulding. But with 
modern inventions of push-pins and other picture 
supports capable of holding considerable weight, there 
is no reason why pictures should not be hung directly 
in place, flat against the wall, without ugly visible 
means of suspension, and without marring the wall 
surface, whether it be wood or plaster. So there is no 
apparent necessity for insistence upon this moulding 
of doubtful value, unless it contributes a required 
finish to the cornice or frieze design. 


MOULDINGS AND CARVED ORNAMENTS 


However important mouldings may seem to be in 
a wood room, they are never the essentials, but al- 


178 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


ways the ornamental adjuncts. They are designed 
to enhance good construction, not to hide the vices 
of bad architecture. Their function is to accent struc- 
tural lines, and to add interest by shadows and pro- 
jections. And this is true whether they are plain, 
continuous lines of light and shade, or whether they 
are richly carved. 

For its decoration a wood room depends largely 
upon the variety and beauty of its mouldings, but it 
should be so built that, even if all mouldings were 
taken away, it would still make an impressive effect 
by reason of its balance, its lines, and its beautifully 
proportioned spaces. 

A different kind of moulding exists for each spe- 
cial place where ornament is necessary. A fireplace 
surround is usually a broad bolection moulding with- 
out ornament. A tapestry moulding has a special 
shape, which differs from a mirror moulding or pic- 
ture-frame. Cornice mouldings are again entirely dif- 
ferent in design. One member of a panelled room may 
be composed of two or three different mouldings 
skilfully assembled, and for each position the scale 
will vary. 

The study of mouldings and their use forms one of 
the most intensely interesting chapters in the history 
of wood-panelling. Gothic architecture revelled in such 
ornaments, for they permitted an additional accent on 
vertical lines. In England, Gothic mouldings were 
bold and rich and of great variety. In France at the 
same period they were perhaps less ornate, but fine 
mouldings were elaborately carved with figures, while 


WOOD-PANELLING 179 


foliage forms were used for nearly all minor carved 
ornaments. 

Karly Renaissance mouldings in all countries 
showed traces of lingering Gothic influence, but as the 
sixteenth century developed, they became more strictly 
classical in form, based on Roman ornament. In 
general, they grew bolder and more prominent, and 
did not take on refinement and delicacy until the cen- 
tury was well advanced. 

The Baroque saw a return to mouldings so heavy 
that they were almost clumsy, until the age of Louis 
XIV modified them into lighter and more gracious 
forms. In the Louis XV period, carved mouldings and 
scroll ornaments played an important part in wall- 
panelling, for it was their province to give to the archi- 
tecture of a room the accent of the curved line. Neo- 
Classic styles abolished these playful mouldings and 
returned again to the strict severity of straight 
lines ornamented by the acanthus leaf and other 
classic details. 

Among the mouldings which are in general use are 
several different forms that should be familiar to all 
students of wood-panelling, since they are the basis of 
most good design (plates 717 and 718). 


I. THE OVOLO 


This is the half of an egg in shape. Its form 
makes it suitable to support another member, and it 
is usually employed for this purpose. The ovolo 
should always be used above the level of the eye to 


get the full effect of its contour. When carved, it gen- 
12 


180 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


erally receives the egg-and-dart or egg-and-tongue 
ornament. 


II. THE CYMA RECTA 


One of the most useful mouldings in architecture. 
It has a double curve—first in and then out. It is used 
as a crowning member, and is often carved with honey- 
suckle pattern or other ornament whose outline follows 
the shape of the curve. 


il. THE CYMA REVERSA 


As its name suggests, this moulding reverses the 
curves of the cyma recta, swelling out and then curving 
in. It makes a bold and decided accent, and usually is 
a support to another member. The large cyma reversa 
was chiefly employed in late Renaissance architecture 
around fireplaces and mantels. 


IV. THE TORUS 


This is intended to bind and strengthen the parts 
to which it is applied. In shape it is a magnified bead 
moulding. When carved, it usually bears the guilloche, 
or is decorated with bundles of leaves tied together 
with a band. 

V. THE BEAD OR ASTRAGAL 

A small torus, sometimes carved with the bead-and- 
reel design. Used like the torus, for binding and 
strengthening. 

VI. THE FILLET 

A small plain face, which is used to separate 

other mouldings. 





MOST USEFUL MOULDINGS IN WOOD-PANELLING 


PLATE 717. THE 

















TONGUE ORWAMENT 





S 


EGGA 





DECORATI on FoR TORY MOLD/ 


PLATE 718. ORNAMENTED MOULDINGS 


WOOD-PANELLING 181 
VII. THE SCOTIA 


A curved-in moulding, used to separate, contrast, 
and strengthen the effect of other mouldings, in gen- 
eral below eye-level. 


VIII. THE CAVETTO 


Chiefly a crowning member like the cyma recta. 

In grouping mouldings, some will always be left 
plain, in order to accentuate the beauty of those that 
are ornamented. Square members are rarely carved, 
in order fully to obtain the accent of their plane faces. 
Needless to say, all similar mouldings in a room bear 
the same ornament, and this must be wisely and 
sparingly introduced. 


WOODS USED IN PANELLING 


In countries where wood was used as a sheath for 
walls, it was natural that the trees which were most 
plentiful should be employed for this purpose. Thus, 
Tudor panelling in England was largely made of Eng- 
lish oak; France adopted oak and pine; and America 
from her virgin forests took oak, beech, and pine trees 
to put on her walls. In Italy and Spain, where the use 
of wood was largely restricted to doors, window- 
shutters, and ceilings, walnut was generally used. 

Oak, being a very hard coarse-grained wood, lent 
itself admirably to simple construction, like that of 
small rectangular panels. As taste became more re- 
fined, and carving was introduced into wood rooms as 
an important decoration, softer woods were found 


182 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


necessary. It is not unusual, when old panelling is 
carefully inspected, to find it composed of two or more 
different kinds of wood, the hard-grained woods being 
used for strength in construction, and the soft woods 
for ornaments. This is especially true of painted 
rooms, where variations of colour and texture are not 
noticeable under a coating of paint. 

Wood that is to be left in its natural finish should 
be selected for its colour and grain. Oak, properly 
eared for, develops a dark rich hue and at times 
almost the patine of bronze. Natural pine takes on a 
rich golden colour, like the tones of fruit-woods. Gum- 
wood and walnut and mahogany each furnish a differ- 
ent shade of brown, if not maltreated with stain 
or varnish. 

Birch is an admirable wood to use for inexpensive 
panelling, because it is heavy, hard, and strong. It 
can be stained to any desired tone, and will produce 
a glossy finish on account of its fine close grain. White- 
wood and basswood possess some of the same qualities 
as birch, and may also be satisfactorily used in 
simple panelling. 

In Florida and in California, cypress wood is occa- 
sionally employed, giving a variation of colour from 
light to dark shades, and a very individual effect be- 
cause of its peculiar grain and character. 

In the early periods apparently neither oil nor wax 
was used on wood. The sixteenth century sometimes 
gave its walls a coat of wax or of oil. Varnish did not 
come into use until about 1560, and it has been the 
curse of the ignorant ever since. Nothing is more 


“RASA HE: 


forest cinhonensertannntns enna, 


Seeraaacasts es, 











PLATE 719. ARCHITECTURAL DETAILS, FRANCOIS I TO HENRI II 
“Art Architectural en France,” Darcel 








ee 


RS de! 





PLATE 720. ARCHITECTURAL DETAILS, HENRI IV TO LOUIS XIII 
“Art Architectural en France,’”’ Darcel 


WOOD-PANELLING 183 


unpleasant than to see a beautiful surface of wood 
smeared with varnish and shining with a mirror-like 
coat, as if it were trying to grin over the insult that 
has been offered to it. Mahogany is perhaps the wood 
that has been most violently abused in this fashion, 
with the added misfortune of often having a red stain 
rubbed in before the varnish is applied. Few people 
realize what a rich brown colour old mahogany will be 
if it has not been marred by any artificial process. 

The proper methods of treating and finishing oak 
and pine are as follows: 


OAK 


Should first be given a bath of linseed oil, which 
must be partially wiped off with flannel rags. When 
the film of oil has soaked in for two days, a coat of 
beeswax and turpentine is applied with a brush. The 
secret of a beautiful finish lies in the polishing that 
follows. This may be done with a soft rag and much 
energy, or the wood may be burnished with a bone. 

Another method, often used with old oak panelling 
in England, is to apply a coat of Russian tallow instead 
of beeswax and turpentine. 


PINE 


All soft woods should be given the same treatment, 
the object being to avoid any yellow or red colour, and 
to obtain a warm cinnamon or tobacco brown. 

The wood is first washed with a solution of washing 
soda or of very weak caustic soda, which will prevent 
the sap and the soft parts from turning black when 


184 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


stained. After being well rubbed down with steel wool 
or sandpaper to a smooth finish, the panelling is ready 
for staining and waxing. 

Various stains have been recommended for pine, 
among them coffee, some of the prepared wood stains, 
used very thin, or a solution of the bark of fir trees, 
boiled until it gives the proper colour. Satisfactory 
results can also be obtained from two or three coats of 
banana oil, sandpapered between the coats. The wax- 
ing is then done with beeswax and turpentine, as 
on oak. 


THE PAINTING OF A WOOD ROOM 


When wood-panelling is to be painted, instead of 
being oiled or waxed and left in its natural grain, a 
study must be made of colours and tones of colour that 
are suitable to the period as well as to the exposure and 
use of the room. 

Wood-panelling demands a certain respect for its 
character from everything that approaches it, and 
paint is not excepted from this requirement. The 
painting of a room should be so calculated that it 
accents the arhitectural qualities of mouldings and 
openings, and allows slight variations of colour wher- 
ever there are variations of surface. To obtain this 
effect, four or even five different tones of a colour may 
be used in the same room. The difference may perhaps 
be scarcely perceptible to the eye, yet, if rightly em- 
ployed, they will accomplish a result far more pleasing 
than if the whole surface had been painted with one 
flat coat. The stiles and rails, for example, may be one 


WOOD-PANELLING 185 


or two shades darker or lighter than the panels of the 
field of the wall; the mouldings may require two other 
shades in order properly to bring into relief their deli- 
cate curves and shadows; while the architraves of 
doors and windows, being heavier and in greater pro- 
jection than other mouldings, will possibly need a still 
stronger accent. 

The most noticeable difference between the painting 
of woodwork in this country and in France, where such 
work is exquisitely done, lies in the understanding and 
the skilful application of this principle. On our side 
of the water, we are apt to let the painter brush in an 
untoned background over the entire surface of a wood 
wall; then, if he picks out the mouldings in a harmon- 
izing tone or a contrasting colour, we consider that he 
has done his work well. There is little consideration of 
the contour of mouldings or attempt to make their flat 
planes different from their curves. We rely largely on 
the shadows cast by the different surfaces to obtain a 
happy result. The Frenchman, on the other hand, 
knows that time and care and tons dégradés will attain 
an elegance and subtlety not possible by other means. 
More than this, he is ready and willing to give wood- 
work as many coats of thin paint as it needs, so that 
the edges of carving will not be blurred. Hence he 
realizes results entirely different from those of a hasty 
painter, who attempts to cover a wood surface with 
fewer and thicker coatings. 

In England in the William and Mary and Queen 
Anne periods, the paint was often ‘‘a common or stone 
colour.’’? A strong light blue and different shades of 


186 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


green frequently prevailed. Mouldings in these rooms 
were usually gilt. 

Unpainted woodwork went out of style in the early 
Georgian era. All panelling was painted and a great 
deal of white was used. Frequently the shade of 
green which has come to be known as ‘‘Georgian 
green,’’ as well as brown, cream, and yellow, were 
employed. Gilding of the mouldings and carvings 
was common. 

Later in the eighteenth century, when wood-panel- 
ling was often removed in order to finish the walls 
with stucco, the favourite wall tones were light tints 
which reflected the French taste, such as pea-green, 
lilac, dove-colour, straw-colour, and pale blue. | 

Wood-graining became a popular method of paint- 
ing cheap woods in the early nineteenth century. 

French boiseries in the latter half of the seventeenth 
century were painted in a single colour in one, two, or 
three tones, the mouldings and the carvings being 
touched with gilt. Blondel, the great architect under 
Louis XIV, thus records the fashions of his day: 

‘¢The custom which has substituted wood-panelling 
for tapestries has also decreed that botserie should not 
be left in its natural colour. Almost all panelling is 
painted in vert d’eau, in jonquil yellow, in lilac, ete. 
The mouldings and ornaments are gilded; or else the 
background alone is painted in colour and the mould- 
ings are done in a paler tone than the ground. This 
economically takes the place of gilding and gives a 
charming effect. Of all these colours,’’ adds Blondel, 
‘‘white gives the most light, but experience .. . 


















































PLATE 721. LOUIS XIV MOULDINGS AND CARVED ORNAMENTS 
“Art Architectural en France,” Darcel 








PLATE 722. MOULDINGS AND CARVED ORNAMENTS OF THE PERIOD OF LOUIS XV 
“Art Architectural en France,” Darcel 



































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; Sse) 




















LOUIS XVI ARCHITECTURAL DETAILS 


PLATE 723 


itectural en France,’ Darcel 


“Art Arch 














WOOD-PANELLING | 187 


makes us prefer the other colours which we have just 
mentioned, especially in bedrooms.’’ . 

Yet in the succeeding reign of Louis XV the typical 
colour of wood-panelling was white with gilt. There 
were also many light, gay backgrounds such as ashes 
of roses, fawn and putty colour, yellow, grey, blue, 
_ and green. When darker colours prevailed, they were 
lightened by gilding or by lines of yellow ochre, which 
gave the effect of gilt without its sumptuousness. The 
Louis XV panelling in plate 714 is a beautiful blue- 
green, while all the mouldings are painted in this 
simili-gold. 

During the Louis XVI period, colour was still an 
important factor of panelling, the usual backgrounds 
being soft in tone and cool in effect. Grey was a char- 
acteristic note of the time, but rose, green, blue, and 
putty colour were often used. Salons and reception- 
rooms were ornamented with a good deal of gilding, 
which was absent from the simpler rooms. 

It is generally believed that in America early panel- 
ling was always painted white; this belief has its 
foundation in the fact that there is undoubtedly a great 
prevalence of this clean and immaculate colour in old 
houses. But the American colonists did not, as a 
matter of fact, confine themselves to this background. 
Henry D. Sleeper, who has made a special study of 
the subject, says that he has found at least seven differ- 
ent colours of paint which occur frequently in old 
“dwellings, and which he has reproduced in his wonder- 
ful house at Gloucester. Among them are a golden 
brown, pumpkin-yellow, and sage-green. 


188 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


As we might expect, gilding did not enter to any 
extent into the decoration of early American walls. 


THE PURCHASE OF OLD PANELLINGS 


It is occasionally possible to purchase complete 
panellings which have come out of some historic house 
and which have been built with a sure eye and a skilled 
hand. Such old rooms cannot always be an exact fit 
in a modern house already constructed; they usually 
entail a rearrangement of existing panels and often 
an addition of new panels made to match, in order 
to adjust them to a given size and a new location 
of openings. 

The matter is much simplified when a new house is 
under construction and a room can be built expressly 
to fit the panelling, instead of attempting to make the 
panelling fit the room. 

Much woodwork of this sort is brought to America 
each year from England and France. By sending the 
required measurements abroad in advance, the rooms 
may be altered and adapted before they arrive in this 
country, so that they are ready to set up in place when 
they land here—an admirable plan to follow, for the 
new carpentry work and the carving will then be done 
by workmen who have inherited the traditions of the 
period from which the woodwork descends. 

Such old panellings are installed in the room for 
which they are destined by nailing or screwing them 
on uprights and crosspieces which have been previ- 
ously placed against the existing walls. They may 
with small loss of space be set inside a room that is 


WOOD-PANELLING 189 


already plastered. If they are meant for a new dwell- 
ing, the walls will be properly furred and ready to 
receive them. Both to deaden sound and to insure 
warmth, the wall back of wood-panelling should be 
finished in a thoroughly satisfactory manner before 
the panels are put up. 








PTER VIII 


! OPENINGS OF A ROOM AND 
‘HEIR COMPLETION 


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CHAPTER VIII 


THE OPENINGS OF A ROOM AND 
THEIR COMPLETION 


O THOROUGH study of interior walls can be 
N made without consideration of the openings 
or breaks in the wall surface. Doors, win- 
dows, and fireplaces are always of paramount interest, 
since they furnish an opportunity for decorative and 
architectural treatments that add great beauty to the 
general effect. It may be said without exaggeration 
that they are the three wall-spaces on which most seri- 
ous attention should be focused; the doors because 
they are the means of ingress and egress; the windows 
because they furnish light and air; and the fireplace 
because it is the seating centre. 

All of these openings are subject to what is known 
as the ‘‘law of completion,’’ which demands that, by 
one means or another, the effect of the opening shall 
be carried from the floor to the cornice, thus creating 
a relation between the break that is made in the wall 
and the other architectural decoration of the room. 

In the case of doors, ‘‘completion’’ is sometimes 
made with an ornamental pediment or door-head; 
sometimes with a plain overdoor panel of wood, 
framed by mouldings (plate 800) ; and sometimes again 
with an inset painting, carving, or stucco relief which 
fills the space between the top of the door-frame and 
the cornice. The fireplace opening is usually treated in 

198 


194 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


the same manner as the overdoor spaces of the room. 
That is to say, a corresponding panel, painting, carv- 
ing, or relief of a greater dimension is used above the 
mantel when the doors are completed in one of these 
fashions. In French rooms, a trumeau, or mirror with 
a painting, often fills the over-mantel space, and over- 
door panels are either plain or ornamented (plate 801). 
In the ordinary types of early American rooms, the 
fireplace opening was generally completéd by one or 
more simple horizontal wood panels, the width of the 
chimney-breast (plate 802), while finer rooms had a 
beautifully designed and carved over-mantel panel, 
with place for a portrait (plate 803). 

Above windows there will always be less space than 
above doorways, for windows as a rule are set as high 
as possible, to insure the best light. Nevertheless, this 
smaller space should be utilized to bring the window 
opening to as satisfactory a completion as that of the 
doorways and fireplaces. Small panels will usually be 
found the simplest means to the end. 

Where a wall bears a painted decoration instead of 
wood-panelling, or is covered with damask or wall- 
paper, the law of completion is satisfied by the design 
of the painting or the textile which continues above the 
door and window openings. In such cases, a mirror 
usually fills the over-mantel space. 


-DOORS 


A large part of the comfort of a room depends upon 
the position of the doors and the way in which they 
open. A door is intended to insure convenient circula- 





PLATE 800. AN ADAM CARVED WOOD DOORWAY COMPLETED WITH A PLAIN WOOD PANEL ABOVE THE DOOR-HEAD 
This original door is used as the central feature for a panelled room in the residence of the late H. P. Davison 
Panelling and decorations by Lenygon 


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24} ‘esULIJ JOATIS YIM Yseuep Avis jo suleyINng ‘“Ulssey] souler “siy JO dUNpIsed 94} UI at4asiog TA X SNOT poyured-Aoi3 ai dulig 
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Photograph by Mary H. Northend 
PLATE 802. WOOD—-PANELLING IN. ROYALL HOUSE, MEDFORD, MASSACHUSETTS 
Over-mantel completed between the pilasters by two horizontal fielded panels 


ki 
4 





THE PHILADELPHIA ROOM IN THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM 


PLATE 803. 
Panelled fireplace-wall and over-mantel designed to hold a portrait. The other three walls 
covered with old Chinese wall-paper 








PLATE 804. DOORWAY AND FINE PANELLED ENGLISH DOOR IN THE RESIDENCE OF THE 


LATE H. P. DAVISON 


The door is flanked by fluted pilasters and completed by an overdoor panel with a carved swag of flowers 
Panelling and decorations by Lenygon 


THE OPENINGS OF A ROOM 195 


tion of traffic, and at the same time to protect the 
occupants of the room from drafts and from intrusion. 
If it is so placed that every incoming person is pre- 
cipitated into the midst of a sociable group, it is 
unwisely planned. If it swings into the room in such a 
way that its opening screens the principal seating cor- 
ner, it is a far better expression of the original inten- 
tion of a door. One of the principal differences between 
Huropean and American rooms is that in the former the 
privacy and protection afforded by doors is recognized 
and made use of, while in this country we have in many 
instances abandoned doors, leaving yawning doorways 
constantly open and neglecting what is an excellent 
opportunity of fitly completing the wall decoration. 
Unlike panelling, doors are governed by rules of 
definite proportion. Their height should be twice their 
width. They must be at least six feet high, which is the 
same thing as saying that they must be at least three 
feet wide. These are minimum measurements. Ina 
room twelve feet high, the correct proportion for a door- 
way is about nine feet high by four feet six inches wide. 
If necessity requires a wide doorway, it is better to 
furnish it with double doors than to construct a single 
broad door, which is awkward to handle, and unlovely 
both when itis open and when itis shut. Even an open- 
ing four feet six inches wide may have a pair of double 
doors swung in it successfully. French doors generally 
follow this plan. Hnglish doors oftener are a single, 
solid unit, but the attempt is usually made by their 
panel divisions to give them the aspect of a pair of doors, 
Ms is in the architrave of a door, the door-head, the 


196 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


door-panelling, and the hardware, that the opportunity 
lies for fine decorative effect. A striking instance of 
this may be seen in the doorway of the English room 
in plate 804. Simply panelled, with six divisions of 
uniform size, this door has an architrave formed by a 
substantial moulding of bold projection. It is flanked 
by fluted pilasters with Ionic capitals, which aid in 
carrying up the line of the door to the cornice. The 
overdoor is a large panel with a beautifully carved 
swag of flowers. 

The Louis XVI door in plate 805 is well panelled 
and beautifully completed with a painted overdoor and 
a pediment resting on two small consoles. 

In many French and Italian rooms we find the 
- concealed door, which has a legitimate reason for ex- 
istence where there are already enough visible open- 
ings in a room. Such a door may be a piece of the 
panelling cut without regard for the manner in which 
it traverses mouldings and panelled space. A door of 
this kind is usually a subordinate opening; its function 
is purely utilitarian; it will always remain closed 
except to permit an occasional passing to reach a closet 
or a hallway; hence it causes no break in the panelling 
of the room when constructed in this manner. 

Such doors, of course, have no architraves or other 
architectural features. They are as inconspicuous as 
possible, even to the door-handle or keyhole, which 
does not count in any way as a decoration. They 
should be swung on pivots instead of the usual door 
hinges, so that they may lie absolutely flush with the 
surface of the wall. 








PLATE 805. LOUIS XVI DRAWING—ROOM WITH IVORY PAINT AND GILT CARVINGS 


The panels over door and cupboards are old French paintings 
Formerly in the residence of Mrs. Oakleigh Thorne 











PLATE 806. DOOR-FRAME AND DOORS IN THE HOUSE 
OF MRS. RAMAGE GOLSAN, RICHMOND, VIRGINIA 
The engraved box-lock is an interesting old English door ornament 
Courtesy of William Lawrence Bottomley 





PLATE 807. REGENCE DOOR-FRAMES IN THE PRIVATE APARTMENTS OF THE 
PALACE OF VERSAILLES 


THE OPENINGS OF A ROOM 197 


Another form of the concealed door occurs when a 
complete section of the sheathing is made to swing out, 
as in plate 701, on the left of the fireplace in the illus- 
tration. Here the blind door is very useful. The large 
ceiling beam would have prevented the construction of 
a door to balance the one on the right-hand side, and 
the artifice that has been employed obtains far greater 
harmony than would have been possible with an unbal- 
anced, visible opening. 

In a library, and occasionally in other kinds of 
rooms, a panel of the woodwork may be treated like a 
book-case, covered with false book-backs which have 
small projection, and swung as a door when an open- 
ing is required at this particular spot for the sake 
of communication with other rooms. Such treatments 
are not only allowable but advisable whenever they 
impart balance and continuity to the plan of the wall. 

It is regrettable that lack of space in American 
houses prevents the use of the very deep door openings 
which are found in European houses, and which allow 
the use of a pair of doors on each side. This method 
not only makes for silence but also allows each set of 
doors to swing into the particular room to which it 
belongs, which is the proper and hospitable way for a 
door to open. 

DOOR LOCKS AND HINGES 

Another feature of the door which offers great 
opportunity for decorative enrichment, and which is 
not always given careful enough consideration to-day, 
is the hardware. In past centuries, locks and hinges 
were considered so important that the decorator of 


198 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


the room was often expected to design them so that 
they would complete the effect to the last detail. 

The hardware used on Spanish and Italian doors 
and on early English types is usually of wrought iron; 
that on eighteenth century English and French doors 
of gilt bronze. Our primitive American strap hinges, 
locks, and latches were also of iron; later locks and 
door-pulls were of brass. The finest old locks were 
box-locks, which took their places boldly in relief on 
the doors. When made of iron or brass, they were 
often beautifully engraved; when of gilt and bronze, 
they were chased and otherwise decorated. The mor- 
tise-lock, which is fitted flush into the door, appeared 
in England toward the end of the eighteenth century. 
Both in that country and in America it practically dis- 
placed the box-lock. It was often painted over when 
the door was painted, so that its decorative qualities of 
design were not encouraged. On the continent the mor- 
tise-lock was considered a weakness and a disfigure- 
ment for doors, and was never generally adopted. 

In plate 906 the hinges add much to the decorative 
effect. The lock on the door in plate 806 is an interest- 
ing old English brass box-lock engraved in an elabo- 
rate pattern. 


DOOR-PANELLING 


The arrangement of door-panels is again a decora- 
tive opportunity not to be disregarded by one who is 
seeking for the best effect. 

Modern doors are so often thoughtlessly cut up into 


THE OPENINGS OF A ROOM 199 


small panels, nearly equal in height and width, that 
there is no evidence of composition. The best old 
doors follow the prime law of decoration, which de- 
mands that when there are a number of parts to be 
contained in a given space, one of these parts shall pre- 
dominate. In French and Italian doors the principal 
panel is so much higher than the others that it becomes 
at once the dominating feature, compelling the remain- 
ing panels to group themselves with balance and order, 

The great English door in plate 808 has three 
panels to a door. Of these the middle one is twice 
the height of the lower; the small upper panel ade- 
quately fills out the remaining space. A variation of 
the three-panel English door has the centre and lower 
panels approximately the same size, with a small panel 
at the top (plate 806). 

Another plan of panelled divisions is used in the 
Louis XVI door in plate 805. Here the largest unit 
occupies the upper half of the door; a very small hori- 
zontal panel separates it from the lower one, which is 
of medium size. 

In French doors that contain only two panels, the 
larger one, occupying at least two-thirds of the space, 
is at the top (plate 713). This arrangement is also 
carried out in the exquisitely carved Regence door- 
frames, filled with taffeta, which form the decoration 
of a small library in the private apartments at Ver- 
sailles (plate 807). 

Hiven when all the door-panels are of the same size, 
they may be given variety and interest by carving and 
by well-placed stiles and rails. 


200 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


Many broad English single doors have a wide cen- 
tral stile (plate 808), sometimes beaded on each side 
to give the appearance of two doors. This fashion of 
dividing the door-panels has had a great influence in 
America and is seen to-day in the majority of modern 
American homes. 


THE MAHOGANY DOOR 


Toward the end of the eighteenth century in Eng- 
land, the use of polished mahogany doors became gen- 
eral. These hard and shining surfaces made a sharp 
contrast with the other woodwork of the room, which 
was often white or a pale tone of colour. The French 
and the Italians rejected this idea and remained true 
to their belief that a door is a component part of the 
panelling of a room. French doors were painted to 
match the rest of the woodwork, or when this was left 
in the natural wood, they corresponded in colour and 
texture and kind. Italian doors, when not painted, 
were of walnut, whose dull soft tones assimilate easily 
with various forms of wall decoration. 

The mahogany door is characteristic only of Eng- 
lish eighteenth-century interiors and their American 
adaptations. 


DOORS OF VARYING HEIGHT IN THE SAME ROOM 


At first glance, it would seem to be an elementary 
rule that all doors in a room should be the same height, 
but on careful study of old rooms, it appears that this 
was not invariably the case. Main openings are always 





PLATE 808. PINE DOORWAY IN THE RESIDENCE OF J. F. BERMINGHAM PLATE 809. MANTEL AND OVER-MANTEL IN THE RESIDENCE OF THE 


EAST NORWICH LATE H. P. DAVISON 
This door is completed with a broken pediment. James W. O’Connor, architect and Panelling of cedar wood with finely carved cornice. Over-mantel specially designed to 
decorator accentuate the importance of the marble mantel and to frame the Stuart Washington 


Courtesy of House and Garden Lenygon, architect and decorator 





PLATE 810. NICHE IN THE WILLIAM KENT ROOM 
IN THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO 


From a house in Argyle Street, London, built in 1730 





PLATE 811. AN EXAMPLE OF THE FINEST PERIOD OF EARLY GEORGIAN WORK 


WITH GOOD CUPBOARDS AND CORNICE 


The whitewood panels are painted a greenish colour with enrichments in gold. Residence of the 
late H. P. Davison 


Lenygon, architect and decorator 


THE OPENINGS OF A ROOM 201 


equal in height, subordinate openings in the same room 
are sometimes lower than main openings. 

Great care must be taken, when such inequalities 
of height occur, to work out discreetly the panel above 
the low door so that it will give the effect of proper 
proportions. 

The funny little door in the Regence room of the 
Art Institute of Chicago, placed directly beside a large 
high opening, is an illustration of this principle. The 
panelled divisions above it are spaced to bring it into 
accord with the other panels of the room. A further 
instance of this use of doors of varying heights in the 
same room will be found in the French Gothic room 
from a Knights Templar monastery (plate 711). 

Ali the principal and visible door openings will be 
placed in balanced order, opposite windows or other 
doors. This arrangement gives symmetry and repose 
to the composition of walls. 


WINDOWS 


The type of windows to accompany wood-panellings 
will depend entirely upon the period and style of the 
room. History has already defined the models that 
were characteristic of each epoch, and each one has its 
reason and its interest. | 

The typical window of England in Elizabethan 
times is the open-out casement, which occurred in a 
range of three or more divisions, separated by upright 
posts or ‘‘mullions’’ of wood or stone. These mullions, 
as well as the small panes of square or diamond-shaped 


) 202 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


glass, set in lead, are two characteristic decorative 
features of early casement windows. Occasionally, to 
give additional interest, the centre panes of a case- 
ment window were furnished with heraldic blazonings 
or other devices in colour. Visits of royalty were com- 
memorated by inserting a Tudor rose, or the initials 
of the sovereign. 

Under the Stuarts, after the Restoration, the dou- 
ble-hung sash window was introduced to take the place 
of the casement, and thick wooden muntins replaced 
the settings of lead. In such windows, the height was 
about double the width. 

As ceilings increased in height through the influ- 
ence of Inigo Jones and Christopher Wren, windows 
grew smaller and narrower. It was recognized that 
high windows gave better light than the wide windows 
of the early Renaissance. These tall openings con- 
tained double sashes with larger panes of glass than 
the Stuart windows, set in heavy wooden muntins, 
which must have done much to obscure the view. Later 
in the eighteenth century the size of these muntins was 
considerably reduced, and they became narrow and 
thin. At the close of the century we often find them 
made of mahogany for strength. 

About 1708-1718 many windows were flanked with 
Corinthian pilasters, and so became a more important 
architectural feature. "Window-trims were compara- 
tively simple and plain, but the panelled jambs and sof- 
fits which surrounded recessed windows counted as 
decoration in the room. 

To accord with the oval and elliptical forms of 


THE OPENINGS OF A ROOM. 203 


rooms introduced in the latter half of the eighteenth 
century by the brothers Adam, large bow windows 
were constructed, which often occupied a complete end 
or side wall. 

Karly French windows of the days of Louis XII 
were usually two lights wide, divided in the middle by a 
vertical stone mullion, and crossed by intersecting 
horizontal mullions. The casements were of metal, set 
with roundels or small square leaded panes in impor- 
tant rooms, or with oiled paper or linen in other rooms. 
These windows were protected by inside wooden shut- 
ters. The lower panes sometimes had outside shutters, 
perforated so that light would penetrate, although 
passers-by could not see in. The window embrasures 
were deep, and window-heads were square or flat- 
arched. 

Under Francois Ie there was a notable increase in 
the size of the window openings, although they still 
remained two lights wide. The fenétre croisée, so 
called because it was crossed by a transverse mullion 
near the top, was in general use. Square-headed win- 
dows were the usual type, but round-arched and ellipti- 
cal windows also occurred. The metal casements con- 
tained leaded square or round panes. Stained glass 
was occasionally introduced. 

Henri IT windows retained their mullioned and tran- 
somed divisions and two-light width, and were furnished 
with panelled inside shutters. Square-headed windows 
with full-length casements were not uncommon. 

Under Henri IV and again under Louis XIII, the 
height of windows was increased until in the latter 


204 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


period they extended almost from floor to ceiling. At 
this time stone mullions were replaced by wooden case- 
ments with broad stiles and rails. The same divisions 
of the casements were carried into the square and 
round-arched windows of the age of Louis XIV. 

The Rococo had a tendency to increase still fur- 
ther the size of window openings. The upper part of 
the windows contained wooden tracery with curved 
flowing lines, separated from the lower part by a mul- 
lion and forming a transom which opened indepen- 
dently of the two long casements underneath. At this 
time windows were continued to the floor,. the lower 
part of the casements being panelled with wood. 

Louis XVI windows were almost invariably of the 
casement type, and usually reached to the floor. Often 
the architraves were beautifully carved. The Direc- 
toire, on the other hand, sometimes used no window 
architraves whatever, or else simplified them greatly. 
Windows were divided into fewer and narrower panes, 
and these were set in smaller muntins. In some cases, 
window-heads were semicircular, instead of being 
square. 

Spanish windows, resembling Italian styles in many 
respects, contained an added decorative note in the 
tiled architraves and panelled embrasures, which sur- 
rounded them with bright colour. The window-shut- 
ters were of walnut, elaborately panelled and carved. 
(See Chapter III.) 

Harly American windows were small, high-set, and 
few in number. In the seventeenth century, oiled 
paper was often used instead of panes of glass. As in 


THE OPENINGS OF A ROOM 205 


England, the casement window with small leaded 
panes frequently appears. Highteenth-century win- 
dows had trims that were bold and heavy, frequently 
carved with classic designs. Reeded columns and pi- 
lasters were used to complete them. Double-sash win- 
dows were adopted at this time, and the panels of 
inside shutters were small. Window seats were often 
built below the sills, and the Venetian blind was popular 
as a means of tempering the light. 

While doors of varying heights are allowable and 
often necessary in a room, the tops of all windows 
should be on the same line. Otherwise, the balance of 
the room will be seriously disturbed. There is no rea- 
son, however, why windows of different lengths should 
not be used harmoniously together. French windows 
that extend all the way to the floor and sash windows 
that stop at the height of the dado may be a very prac- 
tical combination in the same room. 

A discussion of curtains hardly enters into the 
province of this book, yet it is impossible here not to 
make a plea for the preservation of the architecture of 
the window in installing draperies, which are com- 
monly considered of more importance than the win- 
dow itself. 

The greatest charm of a window lies in its archi- 
trave and its divisions of the glass. If these are com- 
pletely obscured, the room has lost something which 
cannot be supplied by any other means. In the earliest 
houses, the curtain was of small importance—the 
‘‘wind-eye’’ itself was the object of interest. The 
beautiful old panelled jambs and window-shutters in 


206 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


recessed windows were not meant to be covered up by 
curtains. There is always a suggestion that something 
is wrong with the architecture where draperies are ar- 
ranged to conceal it entirely. 

Inside window-shutters, which are entirely omitted 
in modern construction because of thin walls, would 
take the place of much fussy window-curtaining and 
avoid the use of the ugly window-shade. 


FIREPLACES 


It is difficult to imagine anything much less con- 
venient than rooms in the Middle Ages, where the fire 
was built upon a hearth in the centre of the stone floor, 
and a hole cut in the roof for the smoke to escape. 
When storms came and wind descended, it must have 
been preferable to sit cold and cheerless rather than to 
choke in a smoke-filled room. 

Discomforts are sometimes the mother of inven- 
tion. Probably the person who suffered most from this 
ancient custom was the one who conceived the idea of 
a wall-chimney, with a hood to carry off the fumes of 
the great logs of wood in the fireplace. When this was 
constructed, the projecting hood descended all the way | 
from the vaulted ceiling, and was generally semicircu- 
lar in shape, like that in the small room of the 
Davanzati (plate 400). Fireplace openings gradually 
increased to an enormous size, but when it was discov- 
ered that by this system more heat went up the chimney 
than came into the room, they were diminished to rea- 
sonable proportions. The fireplace itself was lined 
with brick or stone. 


THE OPENINGS OF A ROOM 207 


Gothic fireplaces in all countries were the hooded 
type. Thus at the creation of the fireplace the opening 
was completed by being carried up to the ceiling, and 
made an architectural feature of the room. 

The monumental chimney-pieces of the Renaissance 
still had large openings. In Hngland a surrounding 
moulding of carved stone was employed, with an im- 
posing superstructure of sculptured stone or wood, in 
place of the Gothic hood. In Italy the projecting fire- 
place was early considered an unnecessary intrusion 
into a room, the opening was consequently sunk into 
the thick walls and surmounted with a panel with a 
bas-relief. Sometimes this panel was designed with 
pilasters at the sides, and usually it was crowned with 
an entablature and a pediment. The same over-mantel 
treatment prevailed in France during the Renaissance, 
although the chimney-breast in this country was built 
out into the room until the seventeenth century. 

Italy at an early date used marble mantels, but 
France preferred stone, and when this material did not 
accommodate itself easily to the elaborate sculpture 
demanded by the time, she substituted carved wood 
mantels, which were often painted and gilded. At 
times, full-length statues of stucco flanked the over- 
mantel (plate 512), and the entablature of the mantel 
was supported by caryatids. When marble mantels 
became the fashion in France in the seventeenth cen- 
tury, styles developed into more classic and less or- 
nate designs. 

The French mantel-shelf throughout the seven- 
teenth century was placed at a height of about six feet 


208 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


from the ground. This was doubtless a great protection 
to the row of priceless porcelain vases which were the 
favourite mantel decoration, and which, together 
with an empanelled picture, completed the over-mantel 
treatment. Both in England and in Italy the over- 
mantel panel with a broken pediment was used at this 
time (plate 809). 

In England, in the age of Grinling Gibbons, the 
fireplace opening was bounded with a bold bolection 
moulding of stone, wood, or marble. There was no 
mantel-shelf, but the panel to the ceiling above the 
opening was an architectural treatment with swags 
and drops of flowers, fruit, and foliage in the style 
of the great carver. Often a portrait was hung in 
the panel. 

The use of a mirror over the mantel is said to have 
originated with Mansart, in the time of Louis XIV. It 
had the immediate result of lowering the high mantel- 
shelf, bringing it down to rest directly over the en- 
tablature, so that the mirror might serve its natual 
purpose. The shelf was then widened to hold the clock 
and candelabra ordained as the proper mantel garni- 
tures; this again had its effect on the general propor- 
tion and design of the mantel. 3 

When coal replaced wood as fuel at the end of the 
seventeenth century, English mantels, too, underwent 
a modification. Openings were reduced in order to con- 
tain the basket grates and hob grates which were found 
so useful. Panelled mirror over-mantels never came 
into general use in England as they did in France. 

In the reign of William and Mary and Queen Anne, 


THE OPENINGS OF A ROOM 209 


the architectural superstructure of the chimney-piece 
was still retained. Chambers finally discarded it, and 
under the Adam, brothers there were few attached con- 
tinued chimney-pieces. The fine white marble mantel 
was the main beauty of the fireplace. Occasionally, a 
stucco relief or a Flaxman design was employed in the 
panel above. In simple interiors there were fireplace 
facings of tiles surrounded by a wood moulding. No 
mantel-shelf was employed. 

With the advent of smaller rooms in France during 
the Regence period, fireplaces were much reduced in 
size, and less architectural ornament was used. Dur- 
ing the whole of the eighteenth century, marble or 
stone mantels, with a shelf of the same material, were 
employed. The panel over the mantel had a mirror in 
the lower part (plate 801). Its upper surface was 
decorated to accord with the overdoors of the room. 
The same fashion prevailed in Italy. 

Karly American mantels were largely copies of 
English models of the seventeenth and eighteenth cen- 
- turies, being at first made of wood with a facing of 
Dutch tiles (plate 802). After 1800, marble mantels 
were found in all the best houses in this country. 


NICHES, RECESSES, AND BOOK-CASES 


In addition to doors, windows, and fireplaces, 
niches and recessed book-cases occasionally occur as 
breaks in the walls of a room. Besides affording the 
convenience of storing space, they have the advantage 
of breaking up the monotony of a plain wall surface 
and supplying variety of interest. 


210 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


Although niches in plaster walls existed from Ro- 
man times in Italy, the shelved niche framed into 
wood-panelling was an innovation of the early part 
of the eighteenth century in England. Often it was 
fitted into each side of the chimney-piece, when the 
chimney-breast projected into the room. It was also 
used in the centre of the wall in dining-rooms, with 
closed cupboard doors below. Here in America old 
niches or cupboards were sometimes installed on one 
side of the fireplace only, giving the room a curiously 
unbalanced effect. 

Such constructions often finished in a rounded top, 
fluted or carved like a shell. 

By the middle of the century, when walls were hung 
with silk and paper, these recesses occurred less fre- 
quently, and by the end of the century they almost en- 
tirely disappeared. 

In general, niches in panelled rooms obey the same 
law of completion to which doors, windows, and fire- 
places are subject. The niche in the William Kent 
room (plate 810), finished with a rounded top, foliated 
carving, and surrounding frame, is connected with the 
cornice by means of a small panel above it. The 
built-in cupboards on each side of the window in plate 
811 are continued to the cornice by a well-designed 
architectural treatment which surmounts the niche. 
The hallway niche outlined with marbleizing (plate 
812) is completed with a simulated panel. 

Niches in plaster walls, however (plates 813 and 
814), rarely seem to feel the need of carrying up the 
break to the top of the wall. 





- CARRINGTON 


WILLIAM T 


Ss 


ICHE IN THE HALLWAY OF MR 





MARBLEIZED 


PLATE 812. 


tect and decorator 


archi 


Paul Chalfin 





PLATE 813. NICHE ON STAIRCASE IN THE VALENTINE MUSEUM, RICHMOND, VIRGINIA 





PLATE 814. SPANISH NICHE IN AN OLD KITCHEN AT SON SARRIA, MALLORCA 
Courtesy of William Lawrence Bottomley 





PLATE 815. RECESSED BOOK—CASES WITH SHAPED TOPS IN THE 
HOUSE OF HENRY TUDOR, CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS 
Courtesy of House and Gardin 





PLATE 816. RECESSED BOOK-—CASES BESIDE THE FIREPLACE IN THE HOUSE OF 
LEIGH FRENCH, JR., ARCHITECT 





EUATH) 17. SHE GROBAN AREAS SA aE Oe PLATE 818. LIBRARY IN THE HOUSE OF HENRY F. BIGELOW 


MISS ANNE MORGAN, SUTTON PLACE, NEW YORK Screen and over-mantel painting in tempera by Robert S. Chase. Lunette 
a painting on canvas by R. H. Ives Gammell set into the plaster wall 


Bigelow & Wadsworth, architects 





THE OPENINGS OF A ROOM 211 


RECESSED BOOK-CASES 


Wherever it is possible to make a book-case part of 
the architecture of a room, the result will be found 
more satisfactory than to build a projecting series of 
shelves. In fact, books may be counted on to form an 
adequate and colourful mural decoration when they 
are set into recessed cases, flush with the walls. 

There are many places in a room where books can 
be put without taking up any appreciable space. One 
of these spots is beside a recessed window, as in plate 
815. Another is beside the fireplace (plates 816 
and 817). 

The average width of the side of a book is six to 
eight inches. <A shelf that is ten inches deep will take 
care of everything but books of large dimensions, and 
can be sunk into most walls without difficulty. 

When these bookshelves can be continued to the 
ceiling and the walls are lined with the deep, rich bind- 
ings of old books in different tones of sumptuous 
tooled leather (plate 818), the book-lover’s dream of a 
perfect library is realized. 


14 








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CHAPTER IX 
ROUGH AND SMOOTH PLASTER WALLS 


OR every wall covered with wood-panelling or 
tiles or textiles, there are probably ten thousand 


plastered walls in American homes. Being the 
most economical and practical wall surface, plaster is 
naturally the most extensively used. It is likely, then, 
that a great proportion of home-makers will be vitally 
interested in knowing what can be done to make a plas- 
ter wall a decorative element in the house. 

Plaster, no matter what its texture, belongs in the 
category of background walls until it is combined with 
certain features that immediately transform it into a 
decorative treatment. 

Rough plaster, for example, spread over a flat wall 
surface, remains serenely neutral. But when it is used 
as the filling of a half-timber construction, and when 
the accent of the dark wood lines that cross its surface 
form horizontal or vertical or diagonal compositions, 
the rough plaster wall becomes a decoration (plates 
900 and 901). 

Again, rough plaster which is coloured and marked 
off in blocks to resemble stone lays claim to being a 
decorative wall-treatment, since any surface which is 
divided by repeating lines contributes a certain deco- 
rative quality to a room. 

Smooth plaster, for its part, does not count as deco- 
ration unless it is painted in some distinctive manner, 

Q15 


216 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


or used with stucco ornamentation, or perhaps pan- 
elled with mouldings, in which case it assumes much 
the same relation to a room as wood-panelling. 

Rough-plaster treatments, of course, belong with 
earlier periods and early types of furniture in oak or 
walnut, while smooth-plaster walls are the suitable set- 
ting for more sophisticated schemes and for eigh- 
teenth-century furniture. 


ROUGH-PLASTER WALLS 


Old-time ‘‘rough-plaster’’ walls were surfaces with 
pleasing inequalities left by the marks of the plas- 
terers’ trowels. It is improbable that the effect was a 
studied one in the beginning’, but to-day much time and 
money are expended to obtain the same artistic result 
by means of what is called ‘‘hand-trowelling’’ (plates 
902 and 903). 

Many of the early ‘‘rough-plaster walls,’’ like those 
in the Palazzo Davanzati (plate 400, Chapter IV), were 
wiped off, when completed, with wet sponges that con- 
tained solutions of different colours. ‘‘Dragging’’ 
the colours and blending them as they met gave the sur- 
face a variation of warm tints that was not without its 
charm. Such walls were called spunge or ‘‘sponged’’ 
walls. The finish is imitated to-day both with sponge 
and brush methods (plate 903). Another and perhaps 
a simpler method of obtaining something of the same 
effect is to mix earth colours with the top coat of plas- 
ter, or to apply a coat of orange shellac after the sur- 
face is dry. | 

A good hand-trowelled plaster wall depends largely 





PLATE 900. THE OLD TITHE BARN IN THE GROUNDS OF BORLASES, TWYFORD, CONVERTED 
INTO A MUSIC AND BILLIARD ROOM 


The plaster walls with oak beams, half timbers and trusses make a fine setting for 16th and 17th century 
English furniture 


Courtesy of House and Garden 





PLATE 901. FIREPLACE-WALL, SHOWING BEAMS AND POSTS OF AN OLD TUDOR HOUSE 
REMOVED FROM ASHFORD, KENT, AND NOW RE-ERECTED ON THE OUTSKIRTS OF 
CLEVELAND 
Courtesy of Mrs. E. S. Burke 





PLATE 902, HAND-TROWELLED PLASTER WALL IN THE HOUSE OF H. Le. CAMMANN, 
SUTTON PLACE 
Courtesy of House and Garden 


ROUGH AND SMOOTH PLASTER WALLS 217 


on: the skill and the feeling of the individual plasterer. 
Unfortunately, workmen of to-day are not always the 
artists of yesterday. It is quite possible that a man 
will make one end of a room too ‘‘bumpy,’’ and the 
other end too smooth, if he is not careful enough. If he 
has cooperating workmen, their styles may differ so 
that too great a variety is noticeable in the plaster sur- 
face. Moreover, hand-trowelling is an expensive and 
slow process. 

For these reasons the ‘‘hand-trowelled plaster’’ 
that comes ready-made in sheets has been found ex- 
tremely useful in localities where expert workmen are 
not procurable. A carefully modelled mould, about five 
feet square, supplies the unequal surface that is de- 
sired. Over this mould the plaster is poured and cast 
in large thin sheets, which may be attached with plas- 
ter-glue to any wall that is to be transformed into a 
Spanish, early English, or Italian background. The 
surface can be painted after installation, or glazed, or 
wiped off with sponges, and it insures a fair equality 
of unevenness without being mechanical. Needless to 
say, the cost of this variety of ‘‘rough plaster’’ is 
small in comparison with that which is done in place on 
the wall. 

Other rough finishes which may be given to a plas- 
ter-glue to any wall that is to be transformed into a 
of various kinds of stone. 


SAND-FINISHED PLASTER WALLS 


Sand-finished plaster walls usually require two 
coats of plaster in addition to the ‘‘scratch coat,’’ 


218 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


which is merely a base to give the plaster something to 
hold it fast. The second, or ‘‘brown coat,’’ is made of 
plaster and sand, while the top coat consists of cement 
and sand. 

As a general rule, the colour of this sand-finished 
plaster depends upon the mixture from which it is 
made. A very good French grey may be obtained by a 
combination of black cement and brown sand. A pale- 
oreyish tone will be given by black cement and white 
sand. Buff and cream colours are the result of other 
mixtures with a base of white cement. The architect 
and decorator will, of course, pay special attention to 
the tone of the wall, which is quite as important as 
its texture. 


STONE-FINISHED PLASTER WALLS 


Stone-finished plaster walls are marked off and 
erooved, while the plaster is still wet, in oblongs and 
rectangles that simulate blocks of stone. 

The most popular of these stone finishes are Caen 
stone, in a greyish tone; travertine, which is an imita- 
tion of the yellowish Roman building stone, full of pits 
and veinings; and kato stone, which is similar to tray- 
ertine, but has no veins. Marble dust and mica are 
sometimes mixed with the plaster to form this third 
finish, and when the surface is sandpapered, occasional 
glints of these substances will appear. 

A very good imitation of rubble is obtained when a 
stone-finished plaster wall is marked off in irregular 
divisions, to look like field stone. 

Hand-trowelled plaster walls will be required for 


SPUNGE PLASTER WALL IN THE HOUSE OF BENJAMIN WOOD 


William Lawrence Bottomley, architect 





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ROUGH AND SMOOTH PLASTER WALLS ~ 219 


many early Italian, Spanish, and English interiors 
(plates 904 and 905); sand-finished plaster’ walls suit 
large surfaces and great spaces, which are to form 
backgrounds for fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth 
century treatments; and stone-finished plaster walls 
are admirable for halls, passageways, and primitive 
rooms wherever strength and durability must be 
suggested. 

We have already spoken of the adaptability of plas- 
ter ornament in Chapter V. It is quickly apparent 
that for large wall areas plaster has the same quali- 
ties, being always willing to take the place of other 
materials and capable of reproducing them in a less 
costly manner. 


HALF-TIMBERED WALLS 


A characteristic wall-construction of Elizabethan 
- houses and of many French provincial dwellings, as 
well as of seventeenth-century homes in this country, 
is the half-timbered wall, which is the same on the 
exterior and interior, the spaces between the heavy oak 
timbers being filled in with a coarse kind of plaster, 
sometimes, in England, called ‘‘wattle and daub.’’ The 
honesty and unpretentiousness of these walls, where 
all the supports are visible, has been highly lauded. 
Their decorative qualities have not been so often dis- 
cussed, although one who has seen them in their native 
settings does not soon forget this striking ‘‘black and 
white’’ architecture. 

In half-timbered rooms, beamed ceilings or open 
timbers are often used. The old barn in plate 900, now 


220 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


converted into a music room, is a splendid example of 
this early English style. The walls need no other deco- 
ration than the series of posts and recurrent vertical 
and horizontal lines of oak. 

Other decorative arrangements of beams and tim- 
bers may be seen in the original Tudor house removed 
from England and now reérected on the outskirts of 
Cleveland (plate 901). 


DOOR- AND WINDOW-TRIMS IN ROUGH-PLASTER ROOMS 


In Italian and Spanish rooms where a very early 
background is desired, no wood trim except a base- 
board will be used with rough-plaster walls, the doors, 
windows, niches, and built-in book-cases being faced 
with plaster. This is the method that has been fol- 
lowed in the stair-halls in plates 902 and 905. 

When wood trim is used, it is generally the bronzed 
tone of dark oak (plates 900 and 904) or walnut 
(plate 907). 

In Spanish rooms, as already described in Chapter 
TII, trims and dadoes of polychrome tile were used 
as the decorative notes (see illustrations of Chap- 
ter IIT). 

PAINTED DOORS 

-Oceasionally it will be found that a painted door is 
required in a large plaster wall to give a needed note 
of colour. A design by Victor White for a Spanish 
room is a good illustration of what may be done in 
a case like this, and shows how a door may become 
in effect a decorative picture framed by its opening 

(plate 906). 





PLATE 905. STAIR—-HALL IN THE HOUSE OF MISS E. K. BRANCH, CASTINE, MAINE 
Walls antique plaster finished in parchment colour, copings of the steps in dark-grey stone 
William Lawrence Bottomley, architect 





PLATE 906. PAINTED DOOR BY VICTOR WHITE, SET INTO A ROUGH PLASTER 
ROOM IN THE APARTMENT OF MRS. WALSER 
The door is made like a screen and forms a decorative picture in the opening 





PLATE 907. FINELY CARVED WOOD DCORS IN THE FREDERICK STERNER HOUSE, 
SET INTO A PLASTER WALL 





PLATE 908. SMOOTH PLASTER WALL WITH ORNAMENTED CORNICE, DOOR-FRAME, 
AND A SIMPLE CHATR-RAIL, IN THE RESIDENCE OF MRS. EDWARD S. MOORE, ROSLYN, 
LONG ISLAND 
John Cross, architect 





Puenonen by as H. Northend 
PLATE 909. PLASTER WALLS PANELLED WITH IMPORTANT 
MOULDINGS 
Living-room in the house of Guy Walker, Boston 


ROUGH AND SMOOTH PLASTER WALLS ~ 221 


This particular door is very interesting in construc- 
tion, since it folds back in four sections like a screen. 
On the side shown in the illustration, it is painted with 
ships, like an old picture of the Venetian: school; the 
reverse side is panelled in walnut. The ornamental 
iron hinges are an important part of the decoration. 

The idea of the folding screen-door is a happy sug- 
gestion for apartments, where there is not always 
enough space to allow wide doors to swing back to 
their full extent. 

Finely carved wood doors, like those in plate 907, 
also add great beauty to a rough-plaster wall. 


SMOOTH-PLASTER WALLS 


Now we come to the smooth-plaster wall, which is 
commonly found in the ordinary dwelling. What can 
be done to give it decorative interest? There is more 
than one answer to this question. It may be divided 
into panels by means of wood or plaster moulding. It 
may be painted in colour, as the Adam brothers pro- 
posed, ‘‘to take off the glare of the white.’? Or, where 
advisable, it may be grained to look like wood, or mar- 
bleized to resemble marble. 

The system of panelling with strips of wood called 
‘‘nicture-mouldings’’ has been generally adopted in 
modern houses in order to suggest a resemblance to the 
architectural effects of wood-covered walls. This is a 
simple and practical method of decoration, which has 
much to recommend it because of its comparatively 
small cost. The panelled plaster wall, however, re- 
quires something more than picture-mouldings and a_ 


222 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


carpenter to make it successful. Quite as important 
in its own fashion as the wood-panelled wall, it de- 
mands an equally keen understanding of the division 
and balance of spaces. 

All that has been said in a previous chapter on the 
subject of wood-panelling is applicable here. As in a 
wood room, the wall will be divided into dado, field, and 
cornice. The same rules of proportion hold good 
whether the surface is wood or plaster. The effect of 
different period styles may be obtained in a like man- 
ner, by observing proper proportions and by using 
correct mouldings, door-frames, and mantel-pieces. 
The law of completion of openings must be observed. 
We suggest a careful study of Chapter VII by any one 
who is interested in planning a good moulding-panelled 
plaster wall. 

A plaster surface which is to be divided into panels 
and painted should first be canvased to avoid the pos- 
sibility of showing cracks or flaws. It is unnecessary to 
say that, in addition to this precaution, the plaster 
itself should be smooth and even before the canvas is 
applied; otherwise every existing irregularity will be 
accented as the covering adapts itself to the contour of 
the wall. Cracks that may develop with time, however, 
are not likely to show through the canvas, since its ten- 
sion is great enough to conceal them. 

The ‘‘canvas’’ used is merely a heavy unbleached 
muslin, pasted on the wall as if it were paper, and it 
may be sized and painted like any other wall surface 
after being applied. It has the double advantage of 
concealing deficiencies in the plaster and of protecting 


ROUGH AND SMOOTH PLASTER WALLS — 223 


the paint from action by lime in the wall. It also ob- 
viates the appearance of cracks if mouldings are ap- 
plied. In most cases, therefore, its use is advisable, 
although it is not absolutely necessary if the wall is 
well built and has been in place long enough to demon- 
strate its good qualities. 

Canvased, the wall surface is ready to apportion 
into panel forms, and the proper mouldings must ‘be 
selected to outline these panels. 

As we have already indicated, the panel divisions 
may be made either of wood, or of plaster run in good 
designs. The effectiveness of the work will be largely 
a question of the contour of these mouldings and the 
size and shape of the panels. 

Panels may also be outlined and marked off by 
painted mouldings, done on the wall in light and 
shadow, in the old Italian manner (see Chapter IV), 
instead of using mouldings in relief. 

Not every plaster wall can be successfully panelled. 
A room greatly broken up by doors and windows is bet- 
ter with plain walls than with panelling, since the small 
amount of wall-space does not allow an effective and 
ordered composition. A good cornice and a chair-rail 
will be dignified and adequate (plate 908). 

Excellent examples of what plaster mouldings con- 
tribute will be found in the Adam room in plate 511 
and the Louis XVI room in plate 805. Without other 
decoration of any sort, these rooms would be distin- 
guished because of the arrangement of panels and the 
character of their mouldings. 

While it is true that small rooms demand panel 


224 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


mouldings of lower projection than those used for 
large spaces, the majority of people generally err in 
choosing designs that are too thin and weak. It is 
interesting to study some of the French panelled plas- 
ter walls, where designers were not afraid to use bold 
mouldings, often three inches wide and with consid- 
erable projection. Such construction gives character 
and strength to the scheme (plate 911). It is far pref- 
erable to the use of inconsequential mouldings, which 
are non-existent so far as their architectural relation 
to the room is concerned. 

The living-room in plate 910, with recessed book- 
cases each side of the mantel, has real architectural 
qualities in its moulding-panelled walls. 


THE PAINTING OF PLASTER WALLS 


When a plaster wall is not canvased, and it is de- 
sired to give it a wash of some colour, a satisfactory 
method is often to use kalsomine or moresco. Many 
good colours may be had already prepared, and others 
are possible to obtain by mixing distemper colours 
with ordinary kalsomine. This will take care of the 
walls, but not of the wooden trim and doors, which 
must always be done with oil paint. 

Kalsomine, or ‘‘whitewash,’’ as our ancestors 
called it, is a useful, inexpensive, and speedy method 
of applying colour to plaster walls. Two coats will 
usually suffice; the results are fresh, clean, and satis- 
factory. It is easy to understand the temptation to do 
over a wall newly each season when such a medium 
is available. 


PLATE 910. 


§ 


& 
Pe 
; 


LIVING—ROGM PANELLED WITH APPLIED MOULDINGS 
RECESSED BOOK—CASES 
Elsie Cobb Wilson, Inc., decorator 





egasearantecoss oat 


PLATE 911. 





LIVING-ROOM PANELLED WITH BOLD MOULDINGS ON 
A PLASTER WALL 


Designed by Hamell & Thomas, Cleveland 





PLATE 912. A PLASTER WALL GRAINED TO IMITATE PINE 
IN THE RESIDENCE OF MRS. ERNEST ISELIN 
Elsie de Wolfe, decorator 








PLATE 913. THE EFFECT OF JACOBEAN PANELLING OBTAINED WITH 
WOODEN STILES AND RAILS ON A PLASTER WALL. WOOD AND PLASTER BOTH 
GRAINED TO IMITATE OAK 
Dining-room of Mrs. H. W. Boettger. H. Azro Patterson, Inc., decorator 


ROUGH AND SMOOTH PLASTER WALLS = 225 


But for canvased walls, the usual methods of 
painting woodwork must be employed. They can be 
stippled, given a flat coat, glazed, or antiqued. 


Glazed walls are given a body coat of one colour 
and covered with a contrasting shade, which is usually 
stippled until dry, allowing the undercoat to discover 
its presence occasionally, as an accent in the mould- 
ings and carvings. A green wall is sometimes given a 
bluish glaze, or vice versa. Or a yellowish ground is 
given an overtone of grey. 


Antiqued walls are first painted in a flat colour and 
then wiped off with umber. So much smudginess and 
-streakiness have resulted from this method, however, 
that it is a relief to see painting done in clear fresh 
tones, with no pretensions to age or dirt. 


Another method of ‘‘antiquing’’ may be done with 
water colour, put on over a roughly painted ground 
and wiped off with steel wool. 


COLOURS FOR PAINTED ROOMS 


Enough has been said in the chapter on wood-pan- 
elling to suggest the wide range of colours possible 
for painted walls. Cool or receding colours, warm or 
advancing colours—any of them may be used if they 
are suitable to the style of the room and the purpose 
for which it is intended. A very full and complete 
discussion of wall colours and the effect they produce 
will be found in two other volumes of this practical 
series—‘‘The Practical Book of Interior Decoration,’’ 
by H. D. Eberlein, Abbot McClure, and Hi. 8. Holloway, 


226 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


and ‘‘The Practical Book of Furnishing the Small 
House and Apartment,’’ by E. S. Holloway. 

Apple-green was almost the first decided colour to 
eet recognition as a cheerful and beautiful wall tone. 
It has been joined in the rank of favourites by what is 
commonly called ‘‘Italian pink,’’ otherwise a pale 
shade of terra cotta; and by a delicate shade of robin’s 
egg blue, full of life and light. 

Blue is a daring colour to give to walls, and many 
people will be frightened off by the idea if they have - 
never seen a room built around it. A New York morn- 
ing-room, whose walls are painted in this colour, 
would give them a new feeling about it. The curtains 
are apricot-coloured moiré, the furniture is covered 
with a linen in Chinese design which brings in notes 
of orange, red, black, and green on a tan ground. Old 
English walnut furniture, a red lacquer secretary, a 
vedure tapestry, Chinese paintings on the wall, red 
lacquer lamps, and a cabinet full of old Chelsea figures 
—these give the interest and colour that are needed 
to complete the scheme. 

Such compositions, of course, are suitable only for 
shut-off rooms, and for a house where there are many 
rooms. A small house or limited quarters will be more 
restful if one colour is chosen as a general keynote for 
connecting rooms. Variety and harmony in this case 
may be obtained by different draperies and accents. 


CEILING COLOURS 


The ceilings of painted rooms should be either 
lighter shades of the same colour, or an old parchment 


ROUGH AND SMOOTH PLASTER WALLS — 227 


tone, which accords with any wall except white. A 
pale-green ceiling, for example, casts a ghostly hght; 
in green rooms, parchment-coloured ceilings are 
preferable. 

The tinting of the ceiling to the proper shade is of 
ereat importance in a room with coloured walls. Ceil- 
ings left glaring white will entirely destroy the bal- 
ance of the room. 

Great care must be taken to have the ceiling pale 
enough in tone to lift it up above the walls, and it must 
be remembered that the reflection cast from the walls 
will, to a certain degree, darken any tint which is ap- 
plied. The light that traverses the curtains, if they 
are transparent, will also affect both walls and ceiling. 


MOULDINGS AND WOODWORK 


In general, the most restful effect in a moulding- 
panelled room is to paint walls, mouldings and wood- 
work the same tone. If this seems flat, a pleasant 
variation may be obtained by glazing the woodwork, 
not with a brilliant enamel finish, but with a slight 
glaze, which merely accents the difference between the 
trim and the walls. 

The moment the trim is painted a different colour, or 
is made white when the walls are in colour, there will be 
two conflicting notes in the room, which must be care- 
fully handled. The result is not the same if different 
tones of the wall colour are used on the trim and mould- 
ings, either in lighter or darker shades. This keeps a 
harmony of values. 

As a rule, panel mouldings and trim are painted 


228 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


alike. Only when a decided decorative note is to be 
struck will they be painted in strong contrast to the 
walls. Such a scheme is suggested in the frontispiece, 
where the mouldings on an orange-shellacked plaster 
wall are done in lacquer-red. 

Other important methods of painting plaster walls 
to bring out their decorative qualities are still to be 
remarked. 

WOOD-GRAINING 

This is a method of painting plaster or other sur- 
faces in imitation of natural woods, such as pine, oak, 
maple, or walnut. It is an old fashion which has re- 
cently returned to be of great service to dwellers in 
modern apartment houses. A temporary location is not 
an encouragement to the installation of wood-panelled 
rooms, although they are unquestionably the most beau- 
tiful backgrounds and the most satisfactory decora- 
tions that a room can have. Many plaster walls, there- 
fore, by means of mouldings and a skilful use of paint, 
are being given the semblance of wood, and trans- 
formed with a few strokes of a brush into oak or pine 
or walnut. 

Karly in the nineteenth century a great English 
authority made the recommendation that all back- 
grounds, wherever possible, should be grained in imi- 
tation of some natural wood, ‘‘not with a view of 
having the imitation mistaken for the original, but 
rather to create an allusion to it, and by a diversity of 
lines to produce a kind of variety and intricacy which 
affords more pleasure to the eye than a flat shade 
of colour.’’ 


ROUGH AND SMOOTH PLASTER WALLS — 229 


But the practice goes still further back. Ebony 
inlay was imitated with paint in the time of Good 
@Jueen Bess, when oak panels were ornamented by 
means of black lines and patterns, with great suc- 
cess. The fashion of simulating wood seems to have 
gained ground in the seventeenth century in England. 
It became almost a general habit in the first part of the 
eighteenth century, when high ceilings and the lack 
of carved ornaments would have made walls seem bare 
and cold. 

After the outbreak of the French Revolution, most 
of the English oak was requisitioned for shipbuilding, 
and at that time wood-graining received its greatest 
impulse. Then, after the supremacy of the process 
during the early eighteen hundreds, it fell under the 
ban of the enemies of artificiality and gradually dis- 
appeared from use, to be revived to-day as a useful and 
practical expedient. 

Wood-graining a room can scarcely be called an 
inexpensive matter, for it demands highly skilled 
workmen with long and thorough training. A Scotch 
painter who went through his apprenticeship in the 
old country as a boy described to the writer some of the 
methods used in making him an adept in this art. He 
was first given a door to paint. It was put side by side 
with a mahogany door, which he was told to copy 
exactly. When he had finished his work to the satis- 
faction of his master, the original wood door was 
taken away, the painted door was turned over to the 
plain side, and the boy was told to paint it again from 
memory. By following this method repeatedly, he 


230 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


learned the grain and the colour and the individual 
peculiarities of mahogany. Then he was set to memo- 
rize oak and walnut and pine in the same fashion. 
Hach process of graining required different brushes, 
which he must also know. The various brush strokes, 
wiping off,. scumbling, and the colour of the ground 
and the grain were not the least important Lor in 
his education. uae 

Before beginning to grain a room its architectute 
must be carefully studied, to decide what sort of simili- 
wood is most suitable to its proportions and _ style. 
Plaster walls simply divided with mouldings along 
early American lines may be grained agreeably to imi- 
tate pine. A Georgian room may also be grained like 
pine or deal. A Jacobean room, of course, must be 
erained in oak. 

The plaster wall in the illustration of plate 912 has 
been panelled with wood mouldings and painted to look 
like an English pine room. It forms a livable and 
comfortable bedroom. 

Plate 913 shows how easily the effect of a Jacobean 
room may be obtained with a plaster wall. The stiles 
and rails are of wood, applied to the plaster to form 
the small panels characteristic of the epoch. Both wood 
and plaster have then been grained in oak. 


MARBLEIZING 


No form of painting has been so criticized and per- 
haps so roundly abused as marbleizing. It belongs ob- 
viously in the great class of imitations, but imitations 
are not necessarily meretricious if they are suitably 


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PLASTER WALL 


MARBLEIZED PILASTERS ON A 


PLATE 915 


ROUGH AND SMOOTH PLASTER WALLS ~~ 231 


and becomingly used, and marbleizing has its proper 
place in modern wall decoration when it is used as 
a facsimile of a material which for some reason is 
not obtainable. 

The great master, Raphael, believed this, for he 
made use of marbleizing in some of the Stanze of the 
Vatican, where cost was not a matter of much consid- 
eration. By painting the wall surface in marble de- 
signs he obtained ‘‘that commingled dark and light 
colouring in low tones, which he needed as a base for 
his wall frescoes. The medieval decorators used this 
as well as other imitations—such as those of draperies, 
of jewels, and of architecture—where they were re- 
quired for colour, and to give richness to the effect.”’ 

In Italy in the seventeenth century, when real mar- - 
ble could not be procured or afforded, dadoes, cornices, 
pilasters, and other architectural features of wood and 
stucco were marbleized in a fashion to deceive the 
most critical eye. In France and in England, also, the 
fashion was taken up in the same century: the eigh- 
teenth century saw it still more skilfully developed in 
all these different countries. 

The chief cause that has given rise to criticism of 
marbleizing has been its use in places where marble 
itself would never have been employed. A noted Eng- 
lish artist says: ‘‘When we see the interior walls of a 
cheap dwelling house covered with imitation marble, 
we feel its inconsistency with common sense; and what 
is inconsistent with common sense is bad taste. * * * 

‘¢Tt occasionally happens, however, that we are con- 
fronted with the question of the colour treatment of 


232 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


buildings—especially public buildings—in which, for 
one reason or another, the architect has thought it 
desirable to have columns or other very definite con- 
structive features of which the surface is executed in 
plaster, generally because the means was not available 
for a more costly reality. Now, a plaster column is in 
itself unreal. It may conceal supports of brick or iron, 
or it may be mere ‘scenery.’ In such case it is difficult 
to see why such concealment should not be itself dealt 
with imitatively, if by that means architectural effect 
and agreeable harmony can be secured. 

‘‘So with a plaster dado, if its treatment be other- 
wise consistent with stone material, the introduction 
of painted marble, if the required colouring can be so 
obtained, seems not unreasonable.’’ 

There are certain places in nearly every house 
where the use of marbleizing is not only allowable but 
advisable. One of these is on the baseboard or ‘‘mop- 
board’? at the junction of the dado and the floor. Not 
only is marbleizing eminently suitable for this spot, but 
also decidedly practical. A plain painted baseboard 
will show wear far more quickly than one that is deco- 
rated with veinings and characteristic marble marks. 

Even the simplest room will permit of the use of 
such a finishing touch at the edge of the floor and the 
wall. The baseboard may be made to accord with the 
colour of the walls—a pale grey and white marble 
flecked with green in a grey room, or an imitation of 
‘‘oreen of the Alps’’ marble in a green room. Or it 
may always be black marble if desired. 

Where architectural features permit, trims of doors 


ROUGH AND SMOOTH PLASTER WALLS -— 233 


and windows may be marbleized to match the base- 
board (plate 914). Here again is a spot where actual 
marble might have been used. It would be immediately 
preposterous, however, if the doors themselves were 
marbleized. 

Another place where marbleizing is legitimate is on 
the walls of a foyer or entrance hall of a city house or 
an apartment. Here its employment merely follows 
the precedent of walls veneered with marble, and the 
result is clean, cool, comfortable, and suitable. The 
walls may be done wholly in one tone, or they may be 
marbleized in different tones in panels and compart- 
ments, as if varied sorts of marbles were used, in the 
manner of the luxurious days of ancient Rome, or those 
of the Grand Monarch, Louis XIV. 

Marbleizing is again a suitable treatment for pilas- 
ters in halls, and for niches and fountain alcoves (plate 
915). These may be painted exactly as if real marble 
were used. The columns, if desired, may be of a dif- 
ferent tone from the walls, using possibly Brescia rose 
or violet columns, or sienna marbleizing, where the 
walls are grey. 

In a bathroom or dressing-room will be found an- 
other practical use of marbleizing. Heavily varnished 
with water-proof varnish, the paint is impervious to 
spots and will not be damaged by steam. The one 
drawback to a bathroom of this sort lies in the glaring 
white spots made in the scheme by the tub and other 
toilet fixtures. Many decorators have sought to over- 
come this discrepancy by also marbleizing the fixtures, 
but while such a treatment is practical enough for 


234 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


the outside of a tub and a basin it is impractical for 
the interior. 

Often a bathroom serves also as a dressing-room. 
There is no reason why it should be a hospital dress- 
img-room. Like every other room in the house, the 
bathroom has a right to colour and texture. It seems 
surprising in this day of inventiveness that nobody 
has yet imagined a composition in colour for tubs and 
lavabos that will be as useful as sanitary white por- 
celain fixtures but far more beautiful. Why should 
we not have tubs made to look like jade-green, like 
violet or rose quartz, or like black or Sienna marble, 
graceful in shape and harmonious in effect, to go into 
these marbleized bathrooms? Real marble, apart from 
the question of its costliness, has other disadvantages. 
Surely this age can produce a composition in colour 
that will ‘‘stand up’’ under constant filling with water 
and make possible the complete beautification of one 
more room in the house. 


CHAPTER X 
MOVABLE WALL DECORATIONS 





CHAPTER X 
MOVABLE WALL DECORATIONS 


P TO this point we have considered only the 

i | various forms of fixed wall decorations that 

may be employed to give beauty to a room. 

We have not as yet touched upon the many movable 

wall decorations, which include pictures of all sorts, 

mirrors, wall lights, and wall clocks, hanging shelves, 

carvings and free textiles, whose functions are quite 

as important in their way as those of built-in decora- 
tions. To them we shall devote this chapter. 

The principles which govern the use of all movable 
wall decorations are identical. Whether it is a ques- 
tion of lights, mirrors, pictures, or tapestries, their 
successful use depends on suitability, scale, balance, 
and relative position, both in regard to one another 
and in composition with the pieces of furniture that 
are placed against the wall. Added to these governing: 
principles should be the quality of restraint. Every 
movable object on a wall makes a spot, a centre of at- 
traction for the eye. A wall covered with too many 
spots of interest is restless and disturbing, Plain 
spaces are needed to enhance values. One good object 
hung in the place of honour in a room will do more to 
create dignity, beauty, and repose than twenty-nine 
insignificant and unrelated things. 

Suitability is largely a matter of tactfulness in 
choosing things which become the room. It is the sense 

237 


( 


238 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


that keeps people from hanging a kitchen clock in a 
drawing-room, or a tapestry in a kitchen. 

Scale is the proper adaptation of size to surround- 
ings. It demands that a very large picture or mirror 
should have adequate breathing space. It keeps ob- 
jects of exaggerated height off low walls. It requires 
that an object placed in a panel should conform in its 
proportions to the outer frame formed by the panel 
mouldings. It refuses to allow an overpowering frame 
on a delicate picture, and denies place to a bulky wall 
cabinet over a slender Hepplewhite table. 

Balance is another matter, dealing with an equal 
distribution of accent. This is most easily obtained by 
the use of pairs of objects, hung in corresponding po- 
sitions on the wall. But ‘‘twins’’ are not always neces- 
sary for balance. A painting of the proper size may 
give an effect of weight equal to that of a hanging 
shelf—‘‘weight’’ in this case being used purely in the 
sense of the effect it has on the eye. Often small ob- 
jects of different shapes and sizes may be grouped to 
balance a large object on an opposite wall. 

The composition of movable wall decorations is of 
equal importance with the composition of the furni- 
ture in the room, and the two things are very closely 
related. Each piece of furniture that stands against 
the wall plays its part in determining the situation of 
an object on the wall, so that together they will create 
a harmony. The space between the furniture and the 
wall decoration, and the space intervening between 
this and other objects are calculated notes in the har- 
mony (plate 1002). 








PLATE 1000. OVER-M 





L PAINTING BY 








PLATE 1001. A DUTCH FLOWER PAINTING USED TO 
FILL THE OVER—MANTEL SPACE IN THE DINING—~ROOM 
OF MRS. CARL SCHMIDLAPPE % 
Diane Tate and Marian Hall, decorators 





PLATE 1002. THE SPACING OF THE ARCHITECTURAL PAINTING OVER 
THE COMMODE AND BETWEEN THE LIGHTS IS PARTICULARLY SUCCESSFUL 
Mrs. Buel, decorator 


MOVABLE WALL DECORATIONS 239 


Colour also plays an important part in movable 
wall decorations. Gilt frames, the dark note of wood- 
carvings, the rich tones of tapestries or embroidered 
hangings, the gleam of a mirror—all do their share in 
giving a wall surface the warmth and interest that 
only colour can contribute. 


PICTURES 


A hue and ery has been raised of late years by the 
picture-dealers, who pretend that the modern deco- 
rator is opposed to the use of pictures in the home. 

If I know anything about decorators, this is the 
last idea in their minds. All that they ask of their 
clients is to select pictures with some idea of where 
they are to be suitably used. And this does not seem 
to be a request that is either unfair or unwise. There 
would be many more beautiful rooms if it were more 
generally observed. The unhappy decorator who is 
expected to group and combine harmoniously an odd 
lot of unrelated pictures in one room, because each is 
a favourite with somebody in the family, is to be sin- 
cerely pitied. Who can blame her if she rebels? 

Pictures in the beginning were painted for definite 
places. They were part of the composition of the wall. 
They were meant to be panelled in, not hung indis- 
criminately on the wall surface. They were treated far 
more reverently than we treat them to-day. The mod- 
ern decorator’s attitude is an echo of this early respect. 

Certain places on our walls seem to ask for pictures 
to complete them. Chief among these places is the 
panel over the mantel, where a painting vies in favour 


240 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


with a mirror, a tapestry or other fabric hanging, or a 
plain panelled wood surface. The painting becomes 
immediately a part of the wall if it is set into the space 
and panelled there with mouldings which correspond 
in style to the other wood mouldings of the room. 

In this important location, the painting will be the 
keynote of the room, and it should mean something defi- 
nite and personal. It may be an old family portrait; 
it may be, if one is fortunate in possessions, a rich and 
colourful masterpiece of one of the early schools; or 
it may be a modern picture specially designed for the 
place it is to hold. In the last case there is, of course, 
an opportunity to dictate the subject that is to domi- 
nate the room. 

An excellent example of a modern over-mantel 
created especially for its setting may be seen in the 
living-room of Richard Dana, architect (see plate 
1000).. Note the proportions and the spacing of the 
picture in the panelling. The colour of the room and 
the painting are beautifully keyed. 

- For formal rooms, or for bedrooms and boudoirs, 
the over-mantel painting may be a grisaille, done 
wholly in tones of grey. This sort of picture looks bet- 
ter with walls of a pale shade—either white or tan or 
grey. When used with coloured walls it requires the 
accent of gilt framing lines, and gilt in the woodwork 
elsewhere, to strengthen it and relate it to the wall. 

‘When colour is required at this focal spot, the pic- 
ture may be a decorative flower painting (plate 1001), 
or an architectural painting, not too dark and dull in 
tone. There are no limitations except those of suit- 





PLATE 1003. TAPESTRIES AND THE PAINTING OVER THE MANTEL GIVE CHARACTER TO THE WALLS 
CEILING PAINTED BY ROBERT S. CHASE . 
Living-room in the house of Henry F. Bigelow, Boston 
Bigelow & Wadsworth, architects 





PLATE 1004. SHIP PANELS APPLIED TO FORM WALL DECORATIONS 
Dining-room of Archibald McNeil. Chapin, Harper & Dutel, decorators 





PLATE 1005. A PAINTING BY ALLYN COX FOR THE HOUSE OF 
ANDREW CALHOUN, ATLANTA, GEORGIA 
Heintz, Reid & Adler, architects and decorators 


MOVABLE WALL DECORATIONS 241 


ability and personal taste to the subject that may 
be chosen. 

In a house by the shore, whose owner has a love of 
sailing, the over-mantel may be one of a hundred dif- 
ferent sorts of boats and marine scenes. A huntsman 
or a golfer may choose some other sort of sporting 
scene. The old English equestrian portrait set into 
the fine over-mantel in the living-room of Mrs. Edward 
Moore (see plate 704, Chapter VII) gives character to 
the entire room, and the red coat in the painting is 
the highest note of colour in the scheme. 

It would be interesting if more people followed the 
custom of the seventeenth century, and had decorative 
paintings made of their country homes or gardens, or 
of some other corner of the world that has kinship’ with 
them, to use in this fashion. 

A wood-panelled room or a room panelled with 
mouldings is already ‘‘made’’ when there is an over- 
mantel painting with overdoors that more or less re- 
peat the feeling of the central picture. These paint- 
ings also aid in carrying up the architectural features 
of doors and mantels to the cornices, and so satisfy the 
law of full completion of openings (see Chapter VIII). 

An important rule is to proportion the over-mantel 
and the overdoor pictures to the spaces which they are 
to occupy. A very wide mantel must have the painting 
above it long enough and high enough to form an ade- 
quate composition with the opening and the height of 
the room (plate 1003). Very often it is possible to take 
the fireplace opening as a guide for the size of the over- 
mantel picture. There is a certain pleasing rhythm in 


Q42 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


repeating the form of the opening above the mantel- 
shelf. An arrangement of simple panelling may then 
be used to fill out and complete the space on the sides 
of the picture in order to bring the composition to the 
full width of the mantel-breast, and these side-panels 
are a useful place for wall hghts. 

As an alternative, the over-mantel painting may 
extend the full length of the mantel-shelf, and may be 
proportionately twice the height of the fireplace open- 
ing, the space above it being filled with a plain panel. 
This applies to over-mantel mirrors as well as to paint- 
ings. The size is determined entirely by the height of 
the chimney-breast. 

Overdoor pictures with their frames are usually the 
full width of the door and its trim, in order not to dis- 
turb any arrangement of wall-panelling that may exist 
on the sides. 

Nothing'is a greater misfortune for a room than the 
over-mantel picture or mirror that is either too small 
or too large for its place. One makes the mantel ridicu- 
lous, the other overtops and dwarfs what should be its 
foundation. The desirable effect to attain is the logi- 
eal and well-proportioned composition. 

The mantel and the overdoor painting illustrate 
most perfectly the proper use of pictures in a room, for 
their situation is planned at the outset, and they are 
fittingly made a part of the architectural scheme, so 
that both paintings and architecture are enhanced and 
completed. But canvases may be panelled into a wall 
in other ways, to form the decoration of a room. 

The fine Dutch paintings in plate 1004, which are 





PLATE 1006. LIVING-ROOM BY CHAPIN, HARPER & DUTEL 
The walls are blue with a slight violet east. The draperies of old red Toile de Jouy 


1 UL Bug WOOL aq} JO pus OG} 1” sSunuied 0M] aq, 
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WMH sprempy ane Aq ydrisojoyd 


soul] IvauTIAIMo jo yus008 8f 
ANVISI DNOT ‘AUNALSAAM ‘XOIONVI (O WVITTIIM ‘SUN 40 





~~ MOVABLE WALL DECORATIONS 943 


attached to the walls by simple mouldings, make. an 
interesting and balanced decoration in a small dining- 
room. The painting by Allyn Cox in plate 1005, with 
its heavy Baroque mouldings, takes its place as part 
of the walls in the Italian room for which it was 
designed. All of these illustrations show how restful 
and satisfying a room can be made with suitable pic- 
tures used as part of the wall composition. 

When paintings or drawings are not panelled in, 
but are hung free on the wall, as much care should be 
exercised in placing them as if they were to be per- 
manently fixed. Their shape, their size, their colour, 
and their subject must be considered in relation to the 
places they are to occupy. 

It is most embarrassing to a pure Louis XVI room, 
for example, to have a Cubist painting thrust upon it. 
The painting may be good, the room may be good, but 
both will be ruined if the attempt is made to combine 
them. The Cubist painting demands a setting of its 
own; the period room requires pictures that are at- 
tuned to its spirit. 

Cleverly placed and cleverly spaced is the painting 
in plate 1006 beside the mantel-piece. To begin with, 
its shape and size are pleasant in this particular spot. 
_ In the daytime, the painting gets light from the win- 
dow at the side; at night, it is illuminated by the lamp 
that stands beneath it. The two oval pictures in plate 
1007 bring the accent of a curving line into a room that 
is wholly rectilinear, and their dark frames accord well 
with the oak beams and window frames. The large 
architectural painting in plate 1008 not only fills the 


Q44 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


space above the settee in the hall, but is so placed that, 
when seen through the doorway of an adjoining room, 
it suggests distance and perspective. 

As arule, pictures look their best if one kind is kept 
by itself. Water colours, oil paintings, prints, and 
etchings are so different in technique and require such 
different kinds of frames that they can seldom be hung 
in the same room with entire satisfaction to the eye. 
The best results will be obtained by putting all the 
sporting prints together (plate 1009), by hanging the 
etchings where they will be undisturbed by other pic- 
tures, and by keeping the water colours and oil paint- 
ings by themselves. A certain pleasing uniformity 
will be added to a room, too, by framing its pictures 
more or less in the same manner (plate 1010). 


CHOOSING THE RIGHT FRAME 


Picture-framing is an art in itself. To find exactly 
the moulding that a picture needs, to get it the right 
width and colour and size, to choose a mat where a mat 
adds beauty, or to omit it when the picture is better 
without a margin—these things do not happen by 
chance. They are the result of careful study and accu- 
rate knowledge. Incidentally, they are those things 
that give character and distinction to the picture-hung 
wall. Certain rules can be formulated as a general 
guide, but every picture needs individual adaptations, 
just as every woman requires a slight change in the 
fashion to make a hat suit her head. 

The generally accepted frame for oil paintings is a 
gilt frame. Wood, whether it is natural wood or 


PLATE 1008 DOORWAY FROM THE DINING—ROOM INTO THE HALL OF THE JAMES DUKE 
HOUSE, CHARLOTTE, N.C. 


The large architectural painting in the hallway is so placed that it gives the effect of perspective when seem 
through the doorway 





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aZzalt} B SB posn szqsyi[ng ystuedsg jo sainqorg 
SLLASQHOVSSVW “‘DNISSONO S aaIud 


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MOVABLE WALL DECORATIONS 245 


painted, does not supply enough richness to act as a 
suitable foil for such paintings; gilt flatters and en- 
hances their value. It is easy to understand how the 
gilt frame came into use, when we realize how pictures 
made their entry into the scheme of rooms. Up to the 
time of the Renaissance, paintings were made, as we 
have said, for a definite place and generally panelled 
into the wall. They required no particular frames. The 
mouldings that surrounded them served to mark them 
off from the rest of the wall. But when gilt was used 
as a decoration on the ceilings, the need was felt of 
repeating this colour on the walls, and the picture- 
mouldings were gilded. Out of this fashion developed 
the gold frames that we use to-day, which are consid- 
ered the most advantageous setting for oil paintings. 

The colour of old gilt is soft, rich, and beautiful. 
Modern gilt frames, alas! do not always possess these 
qualities. If you want to throw a wall out of balance, 
and give it a most disagreeable effect, hang it with pic- 
tures in glittering, tinselly gilt frames. You will not 
be able to see the pictures! 

It is often said that a decorator’s knowledge is evi- 
denced by his use of gold. Certainly the eye of a true 
artist is evidenced in a choice of picture-frames. A 
visit to the Freer Art Gallery in Washington is an 
illuminating experience for one who wants to study 
picture-framing, since it is possible to examine there 
the frames that Whistler himself designed to fit his 
pictures. Many lessons of simplicity, restraint, and 
enrichment by means of width and depth of mouldings 
may be learned here. 


246 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


An oil painting, it has been established, looks bet- 
ter without a mat. The frame should be close up to 
the picture. But even with this principle clearly un- 
derstood, there are many possibilities to be developed 
in the weight and design of the frame. Little by little 
the old-time elaborate Rococo frames of a few years 
past have been discarded, and simpler frames are tak- 
ing their place, to the benefit of all pictures. 

Except on very small oil paintings or on those which 
are highly valued, a glass is not generally used, since 
its reflection on a varnished surface is not desirable. 

On water colours, prints, etchings, and all pictures 
which are printed or painted on paper, however, a glass 
must be used for protection against dust and smoke. 

Etchings should be framed with their margins com- 
plete, to preserve their value. A mat is sometimes 
used, and whenever present should be dead white, in 
order to accent the black-and-white values of the pic- 
ture. Itis for this reason, also, that many etchings are 
framed in narrow black mouldings. 

On colour prints and mezzotints, on the other hand, 
a mat that is ivory- or cream-coloured is more flatter- 
ing. Very charming for drawings and prints are the 
French mats with lines of gilt and colour at the edge of 
the picture. Soft grey, blue, ivory, rose, or tan are 
often used. 

The black glass mat with lines of gold is sometimes 
most effective around prints that are strong enough in 
colour to support it. Such a mat should be completed 
with a narrow frame of gold and black. 

Small drawings and prints are often delightfully 


MOVABLE WALL DECORATIONS QA7 


framed in mouldings of precious woods, like violet- 
wood, amaranth, rosewood, or satinwood, inlaid with 
tiny contrasting lines. Old ship prints look well in 
pine frames with lines of black. Certain engravings 
are most suitably set in fine oak or mahogany frames. 
And modernist prints, like those of Bakst, call for 
frames in colour, since they are so highly keyed that 
any other surrounding border sounds too dull a note 
to accord with their mood. 

It is a fascinating thing, this choosing of the right 
frame, and it is fascinating to see what it does to the 
wall. The frontispiece is an excellent example of the 
way in which a picture may be related to the room. 
The Chinese picture, outlined with a band of black, 
finds itself, by reason of this touch, an echo of the 
black desk, standing below it: the red moulding on the 
edge of the black band brings it into key with the other 
panel mouldings and makes it an integral part of the 
wall decoration. 

It sometimes happens that the least accent possible 
is desired in a frame. This may be particularly true 
when a large number of small pictures are hung in the 
same room. In this case the passe-partout or ‘‘all- 
around’’ is a useful device. Made by pasting a strip of 
silver, gilt, bronze, or coloured paper over the glass 
and turning it back over the cardboard behind the pic- 
ture, it results in a thin framing line that holds the 
picture together, but attracts no particular attention to 
itself. Metal passe-partout frames are still more prac- 
tical than those of paper. They will be furnished with 
a ring at the top, by which the picture is suspended. 


248 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


It seems scarcely necessary to say that ‘‘period’’ 
pictures must have period frames; that portraits of 
men, because of their expanse of dark clothing, usu- 
ally require more vigorous and masculine treatment 
than women’s portraits; or that all boldly painted and 
colourful pictures require effects of greater strength 
in their frames than those pictures which are pale 
and delicate. 


THE HANGING OF PICTURES 


There are still three things that must be said about 
the hanging’ and lighting of pictures. 

First: Pictures should always be hung flat against 
the wall. Violations of this rule were often noticeable 
with the use of the triangular picture wire. The pres- 
ent method of using two pendent wires or cords at the 
two outside edges of the picture has done away with 
this unpleasant effect. Push-pins and other practical 
devices for hanging pictures so that the wires are in- 
visible have done yet more (see Chapter VII). Any- 
thing is preferable to a picture tilted forward at an 
angle, so that it seems to be falling off the wall. 

Second: Pictures should be hung at eye-level, so 
that they can be properly seen. If they are ‘‘skied,”’ 
they can give no pleasure to any one. This rule of eye- 
level sometimes has to make delicate adjustments with 
the rule of ‘‘composition with wall furniture,’’ but if a 
picture cannot be properly seen and enjoyed, there is 
no sense in hanging it at all, so that eye-level is by far 
the most important question to consider. 

In a nursery, ‘‘eye-level’? means hanging the pic- 


MOVABLE WALL DECORATIONS 249 


tures low, so that the children may see them easily. In 
other rooms, it means that the tops of pictures should 
be six to seven feet from the floor, dependent on their 
size, so that the eye may readily appreciate their value. 

Third: Pictures must be properly lighted, both in 
daylight and dark. Cross-lights, which will come in 
spaces between windows, should be avoided. The best 
light comes from one direction. At night, valuable pic- 
tures may be lighted by a small reflector which is at- 
tached to the frame at the top. This, however, savours 
a bit too much of gallery methods for most homes. 
Proper lighting may often be accomplished in a simpler 
way by arranging lamps or side-brackets below the 
picture with shades that throw illumination directly 
on it, as in plate 1006. 


MIRRORS 


Quite different from the functions of pictures are 
the functions of mirrors, which have sometimes been 
called ‘‘the eyes of a room.”’ 

It is quite true that a room without a mirror is 
like a face with closed eyes. Hang a mirror on the 
wall, and the room immediately wakes up, becoming 
animated and alive to what is going on. The mirror 
reflects and gives vistas; it increases the sensation of 
space, and repeats the colour and ‘‘gossip’’ of a room. 

The earliest mirrors came from Italy, where glass 
was well understood and beautifully handled. Be- 
hind a door in one of the rooms of Catherine de 
Medicis, in the Palace of Fontainebleau, is the small 
square of glass that is said to be the first mirror 


250 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


in France, sent as a gift to the French sovereign by 
the Republic of Venice on the occasion of the birth 
of Louis XIIT. 

Until 1671 Venice furnished practically all the mir- 
rors in the world. The rarity of these small and very 
expensive ornaments can scarcely be imagined to-day, 
when mirrors are made in almost unlimited size. Only 
a queen like Catherine could possess 119 Venetian mir- 
rors for her cabinet des glaces, where they were set 
into the panelling, Only a king’s favourite, like Mlle. 
de la Valliére, could order 144 at one time. 

To obtain large surfaces, the small squares were 
placed side by side and buttoned together at the cor- 
ners with tiny gilt rosettes, thus originating the system 
of ‘‘French mirrors.’’ 

In the reign of Louis XIV, larger mirrors were 
made, and the vogue for inset wall-paintings began to 
give way to the vogue for inset wall-mirrors. The mirror 
also took its place over the mantel, as we have seen in 
the preceding chapter,and diminished the height of the 
mantel-piece, for mirrors must be low enough to look 
into, to repeat the gaiety of a room, and to multiply a 
thousand times the beauties of those who people it. 

Not content with the simple brilliance of a mirrored 
surface, the artists of this day gilded the lily with 
decorative designs. Painting on mirrors became a 
passion of the time. The decoration of the ballroom in 
the Borghese Palace in Rome was done by Mario dei 
Fiori, so called because of his special skill in creating 
flowers with his brush. Many other Italian palaces 
contain examples of this style of decoration. In 





PLATE 1010. A BALANCED GROUPING OF OLD PICTURES SIMILARLY FRAMED PLATE 1011. CARVED, PAINTED, AND GILDED MIRROR OVER 


IN THE HOUSE OF HENRY D. SLEEPER, GLOUCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS A FINE FRENCH PROVINCIAL COMMODE 
Musée Fragonard, Grasse, France. Courtesy of House and Garden 





PLATE 1012. A LACQUERED ENGLISH MIRROR OVER THE MANTEL IN THE 
APARTMENT OF MRS. E. VAN R. THAYER 





PLATE 1013. DINING—-ROOM IN THE HOUSE OF MRS. RANDOLPH ORTMAN 
GREENWOOD, VIRGINIA 
The placing of the oval mirror is wel! defined by a plaster outline on the wall 
Gertrude Gheen, decorator 


MOVABLE WALL DECORATIONS 251 


France, the bathroom of Marie Antoinette in the 
Trianon ? was entirely covered with mirrors decorated 
with delicate arabesque designs. 

After the establishment of the glass works at Lam- 
beth, in England, English mirrors were made in large- 
sized sheets, and were set into wall-panels, as in France 
and Italy. 

No more vivacious or beautiful decorative fashion 
has come to us out of the past. 


THE PLACING OF MIRRORS 


A mirror which is not empanelled is meant to hang 
over a table, a commode (plate 1011), a console, a man- 
tel, or some other piece of furniture which will give the 
effect of supporting its weight. Otherwise it suggests 
the idea that it is suspended in mid-air. 

Like pictures, the mirror finds a very suitable place 
for itself overamantel. From this vantage point it sur- 
veys all that is going oninaroom. Hereitis particularly 
desirable,for it is not low enough to reflect every move- 
ment of those who are seated beside the fireplace, yet 
it gives light at this spot, and illuminates the most 
attractive part of the room (plates 1012 and 1018). 

A mirror in an entrance hall, over a console table, is 
almost as useful as it is decorative. Here it is respon- 
_ sible for the ‘‘last look’’ before going out into the 
street. With one or two chairs, and a table or console, 
the hall is already furnished, but the mirror should 
never be forgotten. 

In a living-room or drawing-room, an admirable 


1Now in the apartments of Napoleon Ier in Fontainebleau. 


252 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


place for mirrors is between the windows. This space 
is often mistakenly used for pictures, which are seldom 
adequately lighted in such a position. A mirror is 
preferable, since it brings light into a dark spot. 

The balance of a room will be enhanced, too, by 
hanging mirrors on walls directly opposite windows, to 
catch and hold the light. If the room happens to open 
on a garden, the mirror will bring the garden into the 
house, and give indoors an outdoors feeling. 

In bedrooms, of course, there will always be the 
mirror over the dressing table or the bureau (plate 
1014). Here a mirror hung against the wall is more 
attractive than one attached to the furniture by un- 
gainly devices. There is also need of a long mirror 
in a bedroom. *Often a full-length mirror is placed 
upon the closet door, where it proves very disturbing 
to the balance of panelling. This problem is easily 
solved by placing the mirror on the mside of the door 
instead of the outside. It will be available in this 
position by merely opening the door, and the change 
will help the room. 

The dining-room needs a mirror above the side- 
board; the bathroom needs a mirror; even the kitchen 
requires one. The mirror is a unique form of wall deco- 
ration in being suitable for every room in the house. 

Boudoirs or dressing-rooms may sometimes be 
made extremely interesting by using mirror-panels on 
the walls, as illustrated by the little room in the house 
of Mrs. John Magee at Palm Beach (plate 1016). Here 
mirrors are alternated with painted canvas panels, 
whose soft colours are reflected on every side. 





PLATE 1014. A USEFUL BEDROOM MIRROR OVER 
A COMMODE 








PLATE 1015. AN OLD GESSO ITALIAN MIRROR OF THE 18TH CENTURY 
USED AS AN OVER-MANTEL 


Chapin, Harper & Dutel, decorators 





e Edwards Hewitt 
PLATE 1016. THE MIRROR-ROOM IN THE HOUSE OF MRS. JOHN MAGEE AT PALM BEACH 
Narrow mirrors set between painted canvas panels to cover the wall 


Photograph by Matti 


ROM 





PLATE 1017. A FINE CHIPPENDALE GILT MIRROR USED AS OVER-—MANTEL 
Reception-room of Miss Anne Morgan, Sutton Place, New York 





PLATE 1018. AN OLD EMBROIDERED HANGING AS THE PRINCIPAL WALL DECORATION 
IN A SPANISH ROOM, 4U QUATRIEME, JOHN WANAMAKER, NEW YORK 





PLATE 1019. A RENAISSANCE TAPESTRY ON THE 
CURVED WALL OF A STAIRCASE 
The only decoration that could have been hung 


Courtesy of P. W. French & Co., New York 


MOVABLE WALL DECORATIONS 253 


MIRROR-FRAMES 


Much that has been said about picture-frames is 
applicable also to the frames of mirrors. Here, too, 
shiny gilt should be avoided. Discarded picture-frames 
may often be used as borders for mirrors, when their 
design and colour are good. 

Mirror-frames have not always been of gilded wood. 
In England, in early days, they were made of strips of 
stump-work embroidery, and of tortoise-shell. Charles 
II frames were silvered. Many William and Mary mir- 
rors had frames of coloured glass. Italian frames are 
sometimes of engraved glass, and sometimes painted 
and decorated (plate 1015). 

The beauty of finely carved and gilt Louis XIV mir- 
ror-frames, of the simple walnut frames of the Queen 
Anne period, and of the delicate designs of Chippen- 
dale (plate 1017) have never been surpassed. 

French, Dutch, and English mirrors which have 
paintings set above the glass serve the purpose of pic- 
tures and mirrors at the same time on the wall. 

While a picture-frame is usually four-square, there 
is often on a mirror an opportunity for curves and 
shaped tops that add much to the decorative value of 
these wall ornaments. 


TAPESTRIES AND FABRIC HANGINGS 
As we have already seen in Chapter II, the first 
fabrics used on walls, to soften the severity of stone 
and rough plaster, were tapesties and embroideries. 
These sometimes acted as backgrounds for a piece 
of furniture, as in plate 1018.. In other cases they were 


254 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


not related to any furniture, but were used simply as 
free decorative textiles to give colour in a place where 
it was needed, like the tapestry on the curved stair-wall 
in plate 1019. Again, they took the place of pictures 
in a room, as in plate 1020. The most precious bits 
were framed and set into a specific surface, sometimes 
over a mantel (plate 1021). 

The various fashions of hanging tapestries of dif- 
ferent styles and epochs are discussed in Chapter VI. 

It is not an unusual thing to-day to find pieces of old 
velvet edged with galloon, or old brocade bedspreads 
with their original fringe, or even colourful pieces of 
chintz in interesting designs, hung on the wall in simi- 
lar fashion. Tapestry, needle-point, embroidery, and 
rich fabrics give a certain sumptuousness of appear- 
ance to walls which is not attained by other movable 
decorations, and old chintz lends a quality of fresh- 
ness and gaiety that is something like the effect 
of wall-paper. 

There is, however, one caution to be observed in the 
use of free-hanging textiles in modern rooms. In old 
rooms, window draperies were not such matters of 
importance as they have become in modern life. Often 
they were entirely absent, and a large tapestry was 
drawn across the window when a curtain was needed. 
To-day, when windows have two or three sets of cur- 
tains, the addition of hanging wall-textiles to a room 
sometimes gives the effect of too much fabric. Such 
decorations are most effective when they are used 
in settings like those for which they were origi- 
nally designed. 











PLATE 1020. FRENCH 18TH CENTURY TAPESTRIES FRAMED AND HUNG AS PICTURES IN A DRAWING~—ROOM 
Courtesy of P. W. French & Co. 





PLATE 1021. A BEAUTIFUL BIT OF GOTHIC TAPESTRY FRAMED AND USED 
AS AN OVER-—MANTEL 
Courtesy of P. W. French & Co. 





PLATE 1022. SMALL HANGING BOOK-—SHELVES THAT ARE 
USEFUL AND DECORATIVE ABOVE A WRITING—DESK 
Chapin, Harper & Dutel, architects 


MOVABLE WALL DECORATIONS 255 


Tapestries, of course, have stood through all ages 
as one of the most beautiful of wall decorations. They 
take their place properly on every type of background, 
including stone, marble, rough or smooth plaster, and 
wood-panelling. 


WALL-LIGHTS 


The decorative qualities of lighting fixtures are of 
vast importance to a room. Wall-lights should be as 
carefully chosen and as scrupulously well placed as if 
they were pictures or mirrors. In form, substance, and 
colour, they can contribute much beauty, in addition to 
furnishing the illumination which enriches all the other 
wall decorations and which completes the comfort of 
a room. 

Crystal side-lights help to make the French room 
gay and charming. When their hanging ‘‘jewels’’ are 
reflected in mirrors, the whole room sparkles with an 
air of polished brilliancy. Wrought-iron wall-lights in 
decorative designs enhance the strength and vigour 
of rough-plaster walls. Brass and bronze and carved 
wood also have their place in wall brackets of different 
types, and painted wood is perhaps the most familiar 
and the most useful material of which they can be made. 

The purpose of wall-lights is to create a glow half- 
way up the wall, at a spot slightly above the level of the 
eye. Table lamps and floor lamps light the rest of the 
room for reading purposes. In a dining-room, wall- 
lights with candles on the table will furnish adequate 
illumination. 

Wall-lights are variously known under the names of 


256 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


sconces, appliques, and girandoles. Unfortunately, less 
is generally known about their correct placing than 
about their correct nomenclature. Wall-lights should 
be suitable in style, and carefully placed in relation to 
the panelling and openings of a room. That is to 
say, they must be considered as part of the architec- 
tural background, as well as part of the movable wall 
decorations. 

The difference which this consideration makes to a 
room can only be understood by comparing good in- 
stallations with those that have been left to chance or 
the electrician. In one, the side-lights have been placed 
with an idea of balance, with an idea of bringing light 
to the parts of the room that need it most, of distrib- 
uting light evenly, and leaving important panels free 
to receive pictures or hangings. In the other, there are 
fixtures in unnecessary places, usually to the detriment 
of the best wall-spaces. ‘‘Centring’’ a light in a side- 
panel does not seem to occur to the ordinary workman. 
He prefers putting it off centre in your largest space. 
Nor does he observe the regulation of convenient height 
unless he is specially instructed. 

Where a mirror or a picture holds the place of hon- 
our over a mantel, there is usually need at each side 
for a wall-light, as in plates 1001, 1004, 1015, and 1017. 
Elsewhere in the room the brackets may be distributed 
for equalization of light and decorative effect. A wall 
is balanced and completed when it contains a grouping 
like that in plate 1002. 

In common with all other mantel decorations, light- 
ing fixtures must bear a relative position to what 


MOVABLE WALL DECORATIONS 257 


stands against the wall, as well as to what hangs on 
the wall. Proper spacing will have much to do with a 
successful effect. 

Light-brackets may be set on each side of doors or 
windows. It will be a convenient arrangement in a 
dining-room to put them at each end of the space to be 
occupied by the sideboard, or, in a bedroom, at each 
side of the chest of drawers. 

At one time there was a vogue for an overabun- 
dance of wall-lights. An inventory of one moderate- 
sized English room of the eighteenth century mentions 
twenty-two wall brackets. Even those who are dev- 
otees of brilliancy will admit that this must have been 
somewhat overpowering, and will agree that the de- 
sirable effect to be attained is a pleasant glow rather 
than a blinding glare. 

The presence of sconces entails the need of candle- 
shades, which should be as inconspicuous as possible. 
This will best be managed by having them either the 
same colour as the wall, or made of the same material 
as the glass curtains at the windows. 


HANGING WALL-SHELVES 


In rooms where there are no bookshelves, it 1s often 
convenient to have a hanging wall-shelf to hold a few 
favéurite volumes. These attractive little pieces of 
wall furniture also serve a useful end by giving the 
effect of height to the low pieces of furniture over 
which they may be hung. A drop-front American desk, 
for example, may be made to fill the place of a tall 
secretary by suspending a wall-shelf above it. 


258 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


Hanging shelves can be found to-day in every shape 
and size. They are made of maple and pine to accord 
with early American furniture. They are made of wal- 
nut or mahogany to suit rooms with French or Hnglish 
furniture. They are lacquered red or black, or painted 
to give some other note of colour in the room. They 
may be fitted into corners, hung in the narrow panels 
beside a window or a fireplace, or take their position 
boldly on the centre walls (plate 1022). They will 
be found convenient spots for bits of colourful china 
or pottery. 

Occasionally, when one needs something for a wall 
decoration and is at a loss to know what to use, the 
simple and inexpensive wall-shelf will be of great 
assistance. 

Be sure that it is hung, like a mirror, in composition 
with some piece of furniture, so that it has a reason 
for existence. 

WALL-CLOCKS 

From the Dutch clock with its works brazenly ex- 
posed, to the gilt French clock set somewhat affectedly 
upon a mirrored surface, and the American ‘‘banjo 
clock’’ with its painted glass panel, there are many 
varieties of timepieces that will serve as wall decora- 
tions in various kinds of rooms. Choose the clock 
for the room, hang it properly, and see that it keeps 
good tume. 

A recent novel gave a vivid description of the char- 
acter of a certain house by saying tersely that it was 
‘‘full of clocks that had not ticked for twenty years.’’ 

A clock is not only an ornament—it is a useful orna- 





PLATE 1023. OLD ITALIAN CARVINGS HOLDING 
GILT ANGELS BEARING TORCHES 


A dignified and impressive treatment to use on each side of the tapestry 
Courtesy of Cyril F. Peck 





PLATE 1024, PIECES OF OLD WOOD—-CARVING FLANKING A WINDOW 
The wall is white, the furniture painted robin’s egg blue 
House of Henry D. Sleeper, Gloucester, Massachusetts 





i 
i 





MOVABLE WALL DECORATIONS 259 


ment. If it does not work properly, it has no more 
excuse than the railroad which does not run. 

Certain sorts of wall-clocks, like the fine French 
sunburst clocks, are admirable to use as over-mantel 
decorations in a wood room. The iron skeleton clock 
or the large black-painted tavern clock is well suited 
to stone walls. The fat, round tole clocks painted red 
and green, looking like giant watches hung up by their 
rings, give a very decorative note to a library or a 
study wall. 

Sometimes these wall-clocks will need shelves or. 
consoles to hold them in place; the shelf must then 
be in keeping, both with the clock and the wall. It will 
count as a decorative note, less obtrusive than the ob- 
ject which it supports, but valuable, just the same, in 
getting a complete effect. 

The clock for the bedroom should be chosen for its 
silent qualities, as well as for its beauty. If truth were 
told, many a guest has complained bitterly, after leav- 
ing a house, that no sleep was possible because of the 
guest-room clock, which ticked noisily or chimed the 
hours in unbroken succession. 

In many ways, the wall-clock must be treated as if 
it were a picture. Its size and shape must be consid- 
ered in scale with the panel and the room where it is 
to hang, and it should not be fretted and disturbed by 
having a crowd of little things hung around it. As a 
matter of fact, the dignified wall-clock is apt to pick out 
its own site and to hold it tenaciously, demanding other 
wall decorations to give place to Father Time, who is 
older, than any of them. 


260 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


WOOD-CARVINGS, MEDALLIONS, AND PLAQUES 


Wood-carvings, medallions, and plaques are used 
in much the same fashion as pictures, but to give an 
effect of mass rather than detail. Their success de- 
pends on their purposeful placing on the wall. Noth- 
ing, for example, could give greater satisfaction than 
the two Italian carvings used beside the great fireplace 
in plate 1023 as supports for hghts. It would be dif- 
ficult to imagine what could take their place to produce 
the same result. In their way they are the best illustra- 
tions possible of the perfect movable wall decoration. 


“Tee 
Pe ne 
eiyh ae 








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263 


264 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


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BIBLIOGRAPHY 265 


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Vor Hundert Jahren. Festriiume and Wohnzimmer des Deutschen Klas- 
sizismus und Biedermeier. 

Works of Architecture, by Robert and James Adam. 


STUCCO AND PLASTER ORNAMENTATION 


Lo Stucco nell ‘Arte Italiana, by Giulio Ferrari. 

Plaster Decorations, by J. D. Crace. Journal of Royal Institute of 
British Architects, vol. 3, VII, pp. 253-270. 

Plastering, Plain and Decorative, by W. Millar. 

The Art of the Plasterer, by G. P. Bankart, London, 1908. 


FRESCO-PAINTING 


Affreschi Decorativi in Italia fino al secolo XIX, Pietro Toesca. 

A Manual of Fresco and Encaustic Painting, W. B. Sarsfield Taylor, 
London, 1843. 

Art of Painting in Oyl, J. Smith, 1723. (Methods of imitating olive 
wood and walnut.) 

Colour Decoration of Architecture, James Ward, E. P. Dutton, 1914. 

Descrizione delle pitture e sculture di questa citta di Mantova, Cadioli, 
1763. Palazzo del Té. 

Domesticated Mural Painting, by Maxwell Armfield. Countryside, vol. 
24, pp. 71-73. 

Fresco Decorations, by Gruner. 

Fresco Painting, James Ward. 

Italian Wall Decoratione of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries. 
Handbook of the Victoria and Albert Museum. 

Les Peintures de Charles le Brun et d’Eustache le Sueur qui sont dans 
VHotel Lambert, Paris, 1740. 


266 DECORATIVE WALL-TREATMENTS 


Mural Decorations of Pompeii, Pierre Gusman. 

Mural Painting, by Frederic Crowninshield. 

Mural Painting in America, Edwin H. Blashfield. 

Ornamente aus der Bliitherzeit Italienischer Renaissance, Teirich. 

Ornamenti Diversi, Mailand. 

Polychromatic Decoration, as Applied to Buildings in the Medieval 
Style, by W. G. Audsley, London, 1882. 

Pompeian Decorations, by R. A. Briggs. 

The Ancient Art of Painting, Mrs. Merrifield. 

The Art of Colour Decoration. John D. Crace. 

The Renaissance in Italy, by J. A. Symonds. 

Villas of Florence and Tuscany, by Harold D. Eberlein. 


TEXTILES 


Cotton Painting and Printing, W. 8. Hadaway. 

Decorative Textiles, George Leland Hunter. 

Dutch and Flemish Furniture, Esther Singleton. 

Historic Wall-Papers, Nancy McClelland. 

Interieurs Anciens en Belgique, by K. Sluyterman. 

La Peinture sur Toile imitant les Tapisseries et son Application a la 
Décoration Intérieure, by Julien Godon, Paris, 1877. 

Toiles Peintes de la Ville de Reims, Louis Paris, Paris, 1880. 

Tooled and Illuminated Leathers, by George Leland Hunter, Good 
Furniture Magazine, November, 1917. 


TILES 


Apuntes sobre ceramica morisca: textos y documentos valencianos, 
G. J. de Osma. 

Farbige gipse, Gesammelte Aufsiitze, pp. 279-288. 

Historia de los barros vidriados sevillanos, G. J. de Osma. 

Les Carrelages émaillés du Moyen Age, Emile Amé. 

Old Dutch Pottery and Tiles, by Elisabeth Neurdenburg. 

The Architect’s Use of Enamelled Tiles, Journal Society of Arts, vol. 
50, pp. 157-166. 

The Arts and Crafts of Older Spain, Leonard Williams. 








INDEX 


Adam Brothers, 45, 46, 75, 102, 
109-111, 114, 119, 122, 176, 221, 
223 

Allen, Edward B., 81 

Alsop, John de K., 81 - 

Anne, Queen, 36, 42, 175, 253 

Antoinette, Marie, 61, 83, 251 

Arabesques, 44, 46, 72, 75, 76, 102 

Background walls, 19-21, 165 

Bakst, Leon, 247 

Bankart, 107 

Baroque walls 
Italy, 34, 35 
France, 35, 36 
England, 36, 37 
Spain, 37 
America, 37, 38, 39 

Baths of Titus, 102 

Bathrooms 
Tiled, 56, 61, 62 
Painted, 91-93 
Marbleized, 233-234 

Bayer, Mrs. E. S., 85 

Berain, Jean, 76 

Blondel, 77, 186 

Blumenthal, Mrs. George, 97 

Bookcases, 209-211, 224 

Borders 
Stencilled, 80 
Wall-paper, 151 

Borghese Palace, 250 

Botticelli, 70, 76 

Bottomley, William Lawrence, 7 

Boucher, 77 

Boughton Manor, 171, pl. 703 

Brocade on walls, 40, 44, 126, 135, 
136 

Brown, James, 96 

Burr, Frances, 116 

Carlisle, J. F., 88 

Carrére, Robert C., 7 

Carving, Wood, 117, 120 

Casa di Pilatos, 72, 115, pl. 406 

Catts, R. M., 97 


Ceilings 
Vaulted, 30, 31, 33, 70, 89 
Beamed and coffered, 31, 35, 72 
Panelled wood, 31, 35, 37, 115, 
176 
Gilded and painted, 31, 35, 36, 
37, 44, 45, 77, 80, 97, 98 
Coved plaster, 35, 37 
Stucco decorated, 40, 103 
Flat, 71 
Colours for, 225-227 
Chair-rail, 168, 169 
Chanler, Robert, 97 
Chatsworth House, 74 
Chinoiserie, 77, 86, 95, 105 
Chippendale, Thomas, 41, 109, 253 
Cimabue, 66, 67 
Clark-Frankland House, 81 
Cleveland Museum of Art, 59 
Coggeswell House, 171 
Colonial walls, 37-39, 41-42, 46- 
47, 80, 130, 131, 165 
Colour, in wall surfaces, 20, 22, 
110, 184-188, 218, 224-227 
Columns, 45 
Compiégne, Palace of, 75 
Completion of openings, 193-194, 
196, 210, 241 
Cornices, 166, 175-177 
Wood, 36 
Plaster, 36, 40, 105 
Painted, 71 
Cosden, Mrs. Joshua §., 91 
Cox, Allyn, 89, 243 
Crisp, Arthur, 98 
Dado, 166, 167-169, 222 
Wooden, 32, 36, 73 
Painted, 34, 79, 85, 87, 92 
Inlaid, 34 
Panelled, 35 
Plaster, 45, 105, 232 
Tiled, 57, 62 
Marble, 73 
d’Albe, Duchesse, 86 


269 


270 


Damask on walls, 34, 36, 40, 42, 
77, 126, 1384-1387 
Dana, Richard H., 7, 91, 240 
da Udine, Giovanni, 102, 103, 104 
Davey, Preston, 95 
Decorative textiles, 19, 22, 27, 30, 
31, 45, 47, 78, 79, 104, 125-161, 
215, 2538-255 
Decorators, interior, 23 
Deering, James, 97 
del Annunziata, Toto, 106 
Delvaille, Caro, 90 
Dining-rooms 
Tiled, 56 
Painted, 90, 91 
Stuccoed, 110 
Directoire 
Italian, 43 
French, 44, 45, 46, 78, 113 
Dominotiers, 121, 144 
Doors, 193-201 
Painted, 43, 220, 221 
Plaster panels, 120 
Locks and hinges, 197, 198 
Panelling, 198-200 
Mahogany, 200 
Trims, 220, 233 
Carved, 221 
Drapery, painted, 68, 69, 85, 91 
Drawing-rooms, painted, 94, 95 
Dyrham Park, 133 
Elizabeth, Queen, 107, 108, 229 
Empire 
Italian, 43, 106 
French, 44, 45, 47 
Faulkner, Barry, 89, 90, 96 - 
Filippo Lippi, Fra, 70 
Fireplaces, 206-209 
New England, 38 
Tiled, 57 
Flaxman, 46 
Floors 
Tile, 31, 33, 37, 41 
Marble, 31, 35, 36, 37, 40, 41, 
44, 46 
Brick, 31,35, 37, 41 
Stone, 31, 33, 35, 37, 41 
Parquetry, 31, 35, 36, 40, 41, 44 
Wooden, 33, 37, 46 
Terrazzo, 35, 41 


INDEX 


Fontainebleau, Palace of, 31, 76, 
104, 111, 182, 249 

Fragonard, 77 

Francisco of Pisa 
Polychrome tiles, 53 + 

Francois Premier, 31, 75, 104, 106, 
111, 112 

Franzolo, Villa of, 72 

Freer Gallery of Art, 133, 245 

Frescoes, 22, 27, 30, 34, 35, 42, 43, 

65-82, 88 

Geometric designs, 67 
Drapery, 68, 69 
French, 75 
American, 80, 81, 82 

Frieze, 28, 30, 42, 45, 68, 72, 74, 
79, 80, 86, 92, 106, 111, 115, 176, 
Lee 

Gabriel, 78 

Gardner, Mrs. Jack, 60 

Gay, Walter, 83, 139 

Georgian walls, 36 

Gesso, 115, 116 

Gibbons, Grinling, 108, 120 

Gilt, 33, 48, 45 

Giotto, 66, 67, 69, 76 

Gothie walls, 28, 29, 30, 80 

Gozzoli, Benozzo, 70, 76 

Grills, 34 

Grisaille, 75, 240 

Grotesques, 102, 103, 109, 144 

Hale, Gardner, 88, 93 

Half-timber walls, 30, 32, 37, 219, 
220 

Hampton Court, 137 

Handley, Robert, 96 

Hardwicke Hall, 107 

Hare, Mrs. Meredith, 96 

Henri I, -31,) 1432 

Henry VIII of England, 32, 54, 
106 

Hercules, House of, 76 

Holter, E. O., 89 

Huet, 77 

Hunter, George Leland, 128, 129 

Imprimerie National, 77 

Isabella Gardner Museum, 60 

Jackson of Battersea, 42, 147, 149 

Jones, Inigo, 33, 108, 172, 173 

Josephine, Empress, 79 

Kalsomine, 80 


INDEX 


Kauffmann, Angelica, 75 
Lacquer, 36 
Lafitte, 79 
Lanyer, Jerome, 145 
Lattices, 34 
Leather, stamped, 32, 33, 37, 125, 
126, 128-134 
Le Brun, Charles, 76 
Le Rosso, 76, 104 
Library, painted, 93, 94 
Lighting fixtures, 120, 255-257 
Linen-fold panelling, 32, 120 
Locher, Robert E., 96 
Louis XII, 31 
Louis XIII, 35, 112 
Louis XIV, 35-36, 76, 250 
Louis XV, 39, 40, 77 
Louis XVI, 44, 45, 113 
Louvre, Musée du, 70 
Magee, Mrs. John, 252 
Magee, Walter F., 81 
Malmaison, 79 
Mantegna, 137 
Mantels, 119 
Maps, 96 
Marble, veneer, 27, 76 
Marbleizing, 44, 81, 105, 231-234 
Masaccio, 67 
Medicis, Catherine de, 
249 
Metropolitan Museum, 54, 81, 148 
Michelangelo, 73, 76 
Mirrors, 34, 36, 43, 44, 46, 77, 79, 
134, 151, 237, 249-253 
Mitchell, Mrs. Charles, 84 
Moore, Mrs. Edward §., 241 
Mouldings, 177-181, 224 
Wood, 19, 20, 35, 40, 84, 173 
Plaster, 32, 37, 40, 118 
Carved, 42 
Painted, 88, 223 
Gothic, 178-179 
Renaissance, 179 
Baroque, 179 
Neo-Classic, 179 
Colours for, 227-228 
Movable wall decorations, 237-260 
Mirrors, 249-253 
Tapestries, 253-255 
Pictures, 239-249 
Wall-lights, 255-257 


‘Ghee spy 


271 


Movable wall decorations, hang- 
ing bookshelves, 257-258 
Wall-clocks, 258 
Wood-carvings, 260 
Mullions 
Wood, 38, 201 
Stone, 201, 203, 204 
Mural painting, 70, 71, 74, 75, 79, 
83-98 
Musée Carnavalet, 114 
Museo Correr, 139 
Needlework hangings, 74 
Neo-Classie walls 
Louis XVI, 43, 44 
Directoire, 43, 44 
Empire, 43, 44, 45 
American, 46, 47 
New England, 37, 38 
Niches, 209-211 
Painted, 28) 34;°36,, 46, -57,.-71, 
89, ill, 174 
Nonesuch, Palace of, 106 
Oberkampf, 139, 141 
Odom, William, 71 
Orders, classic, 36, 166, 167 
Overdoors, 33, 43, 44, 46, 74, 118, 
172, 198, 194, 242 
Over-mantels, 107, 118, 172, 193, 
194, 239-242, 251 
Palazzo Davanzati, 
266 
Palazzo del Té, 71, 104 
Palazzo Grimani, 106 
Palazzo Macchiavelli, 69 
Palazzo Pitti, 71, 106 
Palazzo Riccardi, 70 
Palazzo Vendramin, 131] 
Panels, forms of, 169, 170-172 
Tudor, 172, 176 
Renaissance, 173 
Georgian, 173 
French, 173-174 
Papillon, Jean, 146, 147 
Parge work, 33, 108 
Patios 
Tiled, 59-60 
Pediments, 71 
Pergolesi, 75, 111 
Phyfe, Duncan, 47 
Pictures 
Empanelled, 239, 242, 243 


30, 68, 216, 


Q72 


Pictures, over-mantel, 239-242 
Overdoor, 242 
Framing, 244-248 
Oil paintings, 246 
Water colours, 246 
Etchings, 246 
Drawings, prints, 247 
Passe-partout, 247 
Hanging of, 248-249 
Picture-mouldings, 176, 177, 221 
Pilasters, 36, 42, 45 
Painted, 71, 72 
Stucco, 105, 108, 120 
Marbleized, 233 
Pillement, 77 
Pisano, 66 
Plaster ornament, 32, 42, 45, 46, 
102-111, 117-120, 121, 122 
Plaster walls, 19, 89, 109, 110, 
215-234 
Smooth, 35, 215, 216, 221 
Rough, 30, 57, 215, 216 
Hand-trowelled, 216, 217, 219 
Sand-finished, 217, 218, 219 
Stone-finished, 218, 219 
Panelled, 222-224 
Canvased, 222-223 
Painted, 224-227 
Pompeian decoration, 43, 44, 73, 
79, 81, 83, 106 
Primaticcio, 76, 104, 106, 111, 112 
Raphael, 72, 73, 76, 102-104, 231 
Rateau, 86 
Regence, 39, pl. 216 
Renaissance walls 
Italy, 30, 31 
France, 31, 32 
England, 32, 33, 34 
Spain, 34 
Restoration, English, 33 
Reveillon, 149 
Richelieu, Maréchal, 77 
Robinson, Mrs. Monroe, 90 
Rococo, 39-42, 46, 78 
Rossin, Mrs. Alfred S., 92 
Ruskin, John, 56 
Sadler and Green 
Printed tiles, 54 
Sassoon, Sir Philip, 92 
Seagliola, 121 
Sert, 91, 92 


INDEX 


Sgraffito, 115 
Shell tops, 36 
Shinn, Everett, 85 
Simili (or painted) architecture, 
34, 71, 72, 89, 92, 94, 95 
Singerie, 77 
Sistine Chapel, 68, 72, 73 
Sleeper, H. D., 187 
Spelman, T. H., 93 
Spunge walls, 30, 216, 217 
Stewart, Glenn, 62 
Stiles and rails, 32, 169, 170 
Stone walls, 29 
Stotesbury, Mrs. E. T., 60 
Stucco, 22, 27, 34, 35, 37, 42; 72; 
73, 78, 101-116 
Frames, 41, 75 
Swimming-pool, painted, 96, 97 
Taffeta on walls, 40, 126, 136, 143 
Tapestry, 29, 31, 32, 36, 40, 42, 74, 
77, 125-128, 253-255 
Thevenaz, Paulet, 97 
Thomas, Clara Fargo, 92, 93, 94 
Tiles and tiling, 22, 27, 30, 34, 36, 
37, 51-62, 215 
Egyptian and Persian, 51, 57, 62 
Spanish, 52, 53 
Talavera, 53, 59 
Triana, 53 
German, 53 
English, 54 
Printed tiles, 54 
Painted tiles, 53, 54 
Tiling 
Dutch tiles, 55, 61 
Scripture tiles, 55 
Tile pictures, 55, 57 
Wall-panels, 59 
Mexican, 60 
Tiled kitchens, 60 
Tiled bathrooms, 61 
Dadoes, 57, 62, 220 
Tintoretto, 34, 72 
Titian, 72, 73 
Toile de Jouy, 44, 139-143 
Toile peinte, 31, 40, 42, 43, 126, 
137-139 
Trianon, Petit, 174 
Tucker, Carl, 84 
Ucello, Paolo, 69 
Vanderbilt, W. K., 86, 89 


INDEX 


Vasari, 102, 103 
Vatican, 96, 231 
Velvet on walls, 126, 134, 254 
Veronese, Paolo, 34, 72, 73, 94 
Villa Bardini, 68 
Villa Giacomelli, 73, 94 
Villa La Massa, 72, 94 
Villa of Livia, 88 
Villa Lazzara-Pisani, 105 
Villa le Corti, 135 
Villa Madama, 104 
Villa Palmieri, 69 
Villa Razzolini, 93 
Vinci, Leonardo da, 76 
Viollet-le-Duc, 87, 88 
Vitruvius, 101 
Wainscot, 30, 32 
Wall-paintings, 32, 34, 40, 45 
Wall-papers, 21, 22, 40, 43, 44, 46, 
78, 81, 126, 129, 144-161 
Chinese, 36, 42, 47, 147, 148, 159 
Flock, 42, 145, 148 
Marbleized, 44 
Scenic, 47, 89, 149, 159-161 
Silver, 84 
Illuminated, 146 
Chintz, 152 
Wall-shelves, hanging, 257, 258 
Walpole, Horace, 74, 111 
Ware, Isaac, 136 
Watteau, 77 
Wattle-and-daub, pl. 207, 219 


273 


Wedgwood, 46 
Whistler, James McNeill, 133, 134, 
245 
White, Stanford, 57 
White, Victor, 84, 85, 95, 219 
William and Mary, 36, 42 
Williams, Charles, 106 
Wilson, Claggett, 92 
Windows, 166, 201-206 
Diamond panes, 38 
Elizabethan, 201 
Stuart, 202 
Trims, 202, 220, 233 
Fenétre croisée, 203 
Casement, 204 
American, 204-205 
Curtains, 205, 206, 254 
Wood-carvings, 260 
Wood-graining, 186, 228-231 
Wood-panelling, 21, 27, 31, 33, 35— 
37, 43, 44, 46, 47, 78, 94, 105, 
108, 165-211, 215 
Painted, 36 
Louis XV, 40 
American, 41-42 
English oak, 74 
Louis XIV, 77 
Wren, Christopher, 33, 108 
Yeseria, 37, 59, 114-115 
Zucechi, Antonio, 75 
Zuloaga, 60 


A Limitep EpItIion DE LUXE 


HISTORIC WALL-PAPERS 
By NANCY McCLELLAND 


**A beautiful book which contains information concerning the old 
French and English story-telling wall-papers very difficult to come 
by. One of the most brilliant issues of the season.” —New York 
Times. 


**For those interested in art—in painting, printing, engraving or 
designing—the book affords limitless delight. A charming recital, 
authenticated by numerous illustrations in color and black and 
white, of the development of the art. To appreciate the book one 
must see it for oneself.” —Chicago Tribune. 


“The author has chased her subject, so to speak, all over Europe 
and has not only turned up striking bits of information, but has 
also collected and reproduced here some strikingly beautiful 
designs.” —Baltimore Sun. 


**A fascinating subject and one which Miss McClelland has 
handled with the utmost deftness. Far from being too technical for 
the lay mind, it reads as smoothly as an eighteenth-century 
romance. On the other hand, it is quite invaluable to the techni- 
cian, not only giving a very comprehensive survey of the way in 
which the work was done, but also giving the locality where many 
of the famous old papers, still in existence, may be seen.”— 
International Studio. 


‘‘A treasure not only for the libraries of art lovers, but for the 
shelves of museums and the studios of artists.””—Portland Oregonian. 


12 Cotour Puates 245 Hatr-rone ILLUSTRATIONS 
Foutpinc Cuart or PEriops 





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